(un)Usual
by kamikaze2007
Summary: Maki's relationship is pretty normal, she'd say. The only thing getting in the way of her perfect life is the occasional odd occurrence, but thankfully nothing weird enough to change her whole life could ever happen. ...Right?
1. Chapter 1

**Hey, who wants a Momoharu fic? You? Okay! As a head's up, this fic is intended as a sequel to signelchan's "Shuichi and Kaede's Ultimate Love Song," but it's not like this hinges on that too much or anything. You can still enjoy this fic without having read that one. However, I do recommend it because signelchan is my lovely girlfriend and her writing is so so good. But anyway, please enjoy (un)Usual!**

* * *

_one_.

It wasn't unusual for Kaito to spontaneously decide he wanted to do something, so when he burst into their room and declared they were going out on a date, Maki knew to just go along with it instead of wasting time trying to argue. It wasn't like she had anything to do, so why not? "What're you waiting for, Maki Roll? Let's go!"

Maki sighed, setting her phone down next to her and stretching her arms over her head. "You should probably give me more than two seconds to react in between saying we're going somewhere and telling me to hurry up." She spat the words, but judging by the fact that she was getting ready anyway, she didn't mean anything by it. He was already fully dressed, so he stood against the door frame, somewhat patiently watching his wife get dressed. "What are you staring at?" she asked when she noticed his gaze. She paused, only wearing her underwear, and put her hands on her hips. Instead of responding, Kaito went slack-jawed, and his eyes widened. "Well? Stop staring at me like some sort of neanderthal."

The insult brought Kaito back down to earth, and he shook his head, chuckling as he did. "Sorry, Maki Roll. I just got distracted." He pushed himself off the door frame and walked into the room. Once he reached Maki, he put his hands on her hips and pulled her in close. "Sometimes you're just breathtaking, you know that?"

"I'd be more flattered if I wasn't nearly naked while you were saying that," Maki said, a small smile on her lips.

Kaito laughed again and pulled her closer. They shared a long, tender kiss, completely lost in each other's embrace. Maki wrapped her arms around his neck and laced her fingers in his hair, but came back to reality when she felt his hands move up her back and start fiddling with her bra strap. She moved her hands to his chest and pushed gently, breaking their kiss. "Hey," she said, still breathless. "I thought you wanted to go on a date."

Kaito's confused expression changed to wide-eyed excitement. "Oh, right! I totally forgot! Sorry, Maki Roll, we kinda started going out of order there. You get dressed, I promise I won't interrupt again."

Maki shook her head. "Idiot."

Once she was dressed and they were leaving their house, Maki's gaze was immediately drawn to the sky, where dark clouds were billowing just overhead. "What the hell is going on up there?" she asked.

Kaito shrugged. "Huh, it does seem a bit stormy for the middle of fall. Usually it's practically winter by now. Either way, we can't let it rain on our parade. Let's go!"

The couple piled into one of their cars, and as Kaito started the engine, Maki asked, "Do you even know where we're going?"

For a moment, Kaito stared out the front of the windshield silently. "I...hadn't thought of that. Well, I'll drive around our favorite spots and whatever tickles our fancy is where we'll go!"

As the car shifted into reverse and lurched backward down the driveway, Maki rolled her eyes. "Have you ever planned anything out in your life?"

"I planned to marry you," Kaito said without missing a beat. "I'd say that ended up working out pretty well."

Maki felt her face heat up. "Do you want to die?" she asked while she played with one of her pigtails.

Despite the lack of proper planning and the nearly explicit interruption, it was still a par for the course date night for the small Momota family. The only abnormality was the unseasonably dreary weather, but was that really so weird? Eventually, they decided on one of their favorite restaurants, one that was out of the way and typically didn't have too much going on at once. As per the usual, they were seated and had their orders taken quickly, but while they were waiting on their food, a larger family came in, toting three unruly children that immediately ruined the slow atmosphere of the restaurant. Maki puffed her cheeks out in a pout as she watched the children run around their table fighting over chairs. "Of all the places in town to take your brats," she grumbled.

Kaito turned around in his seat to watch the mess unfold. The children were still unseated, and the parents were throwing out desperate pleas for peace and quiet. "Yeah, I guess we can't win 'em all."

At that point, one of the children had quietly detached from the family entirely and started wandering the restaurant aimlessly. The small child nearly made a beeline for the table Maki and Kaito were at, looking up with wide-eyed wonder at the woman present. "Hello..." he said, waving a small, chunky hand in her direction.

"Well hey, little guy!" Kaito replied, waving one hand curtly. "Maybe you should get back to your mommy and daddy."

The child smiled wide simply because he was responded to, but seemed to ignore the follow-up comment, instead pointing at Maki. "You have lots of hair!" he said, bouncing in place and nearly losing his balance from doing so. "Like, boom!"

Kaito burst into laughter while Maki glared at the kid. Before she could say anything, he collected himself and reminded her, "Now Maki Roll, this isn't one of our friends' kids, so you can't get too rude."

Maki sighed, biting back the scathing remark she was about to make. Sure, Kaede and Shuichi would have forgiven her for telling their kids to buzz off, but a stranger wouldn't react so kindly to a child who perhaps didn't know how standoffish she tended to be. Instead, she slid off her chair and kneeled in front of the kid, getting on his level. "My hair does not go boom," she said, deadly serious. The big, dumb kid couldn't help but giggle at the silly statement, and the young child seemed entertained by it too. Maki put her hand on the boy's head and turned it back toward his family. "Now go back over there and let us eat our food, okay? If I hear you making too much noise, I'll put on a big hat and you will never see my big hair again, got it?"

The kid nodded and wordlessly scurried back to his family, eager to share with them the story of his encounter. "I hate kids," Maki sighed as she resumed her seat, trying to ignore the awestruck look her husband was giving her.

"Wow, Maki Roll, you're like an expert," he said. "Why don't you do that more often?"

"Because if I did that all the time, our friends would all expect me to be their babysitter, and I'm not raising any children period, much less someone else's that they dumped on me because they suck at their jobs."

"I don't think Kaede would take well to hearing that," Kaito said, leaning forward, elbows resting on the table. "You gotta have more faith in our friends."

Maki could see their food leaving the kitchen and approaching their table, so she abruptly put an end to the conversation with a stern, "Get your elbows off the table."

Once the food was eaten and the bill was paid, Maki was ready to get out, but Kaito was in no rush. "Isn't it amazing how the kiddo you spoke to hasn't made a peep since he came over here? He musta taken you seriously."

"They tend to do that," Maki said, putting her light jacket back on. "Now let's go."

Kaito finally obliged and they stood to leave, immediately drawing that child's attention. "Bye bye, big hair!" he screamed after them, waving his now food-covered hand in their direction.

"See ya, little guy!" Kaito called back as they stepped outside.

"What the fuck?"

"What's wrong, Maki Roll?" Kaito asked. "I didn't want that kid to not get any reply at all, y'know?"

"Not that," Maki said. "Look around you, idiot."

Kaito did as she said and was made aware that they were already soaking wet from the torrential downpour that had stirred up while they were eating. "Holy shit!" he yelled. "I didn't think that cloud would cause so much trouble!"

"Shut up and let's get to the car," Maki said, practically sprinting for safety. The rain was coming down hard and fast; each fat drop felt like it was piercing their clothes and shooting ice-cold shivers radiating out from its point of impact.

They practically threw themselves into the car and panted heavily as they watched the sky fall around them. There was no thunder, lightning, or anything else that would signal such a sudden. heavy rainfall, but there it was.

"Well, time to drive home in this," Kaito said. "It's like the storm of the fuckin' century over here."

"You're being over dramatic. There's not even any thu—"

_BOOM_.

There was the thunder.

Maki jumped in her seat, taking a moment to collect herself after being interrupted. "Just be careful."

"Roger that, Maki Roll!"

It wasn't a long drive home, but the combination of low visibility, the heavy rain, and everyone else on the roads made it a much longer ride than it should have been. When they pulled into their driveway, Kaito shut the car off and slumped back in his seat, breathing a sigh of relief. "Whew, we made it. It is October, right? Am I dumb, or is this kinda rainfall at this time of year weird?"

"You've always been dumb," Maki said, ignoring the rest of the sentence. "Now how do we get inside?"

"We make a run for it?" Kaito suggested with a shrug.

"I'm still soaked from the minute we were outside the restaurant," Maki said. "This is just going to make it worse."

"Well, we can't just wait for the rain to let up in here, now can we?"

The conversation paused for a thunder clap that shook the ground. "Right," Maki said.

"Tell ya what," Kaito said, "after the next thunder, we make a mad dash for the door."

"Right." Maki nodded. She rested her hand on the handle and listened closely.

The sky lit up, and in the second between that and the thunder clap, Kaito yelled, "Now!" He scrambled for the door, Maki almost right behind him. He got to the door and fiddled with the house keys, struggling to put it in the keyhole for several seconds. Maki watched him drop them, frantically snatch them off the ground and finally unlock the door, not even waiting for him to open it fully before she ran inside. He slammed the door closed behind them and paused to collect himself in the entryway.

Maki had already made it to their room, but he could hear her yell back at him, "You mixed up thunder and lighting again, you moron."

"Oh, I guess I did, huh?" After catching his breath, Kaito moved into the bedroom to see Maki practically tear her soaking wet clothes off. "And then I dropped the keys like some kind of rocket scientist."

"Yeah, you did," Maki said, stepping out of her pants. This scene of her in her underwear and Kaito fully dressed was familiar, but she was more focused on something else. "Damn it, that rain was so cold, I'm still shivering." Indeed, the cold rain had penetrated all the way to her skin, even soaking her underwear.

"Yeah, me too," Kaito said, crossing his arms over his chest. "My clothes are soaked, they're doing a better job of keeping me cold than warm."

"Then take them off like I am, dumbass," Maki spat.

Kaito looked to her with a raised eyebrow. "I think that's a great idea, Maki Roll," he said, stepping closer. In a flash, his shirt was discarded, and once it hit the floor, Maki practically threw herself into his arms, still shivering. "Hey, d-did you have the same idea I did?"

"No," she said simply. "I'm so cold, I'll take all the body heat I can get."

"Well, maybe you should listen my idea," Kaito said, wrapping his arms around her and resting his hands on the small of her back. "It involves adding some extra body heat..." He moved his hands down, and when she felt his thumbs slide under the waistband of her underwear, she looked up at him. They made eye contact and within seconds, she could no longer feel the wet, cold garment on her bottom half, the sensation replaced by his warm, wandering hands.

They kissed each other again, but this time, they didn't break apart for a much longer time.

_two_.

Trouble was brewing, but the Momota family had no way of possibly knowing that. Instead, Maki was focused on the very next week and trying desperately to wiggle her way out of having to dress up for the Halloween party. Kaito was insistent, and he promised his matching costume ideas were going to be great, but Maki knew that whatever they did would be overshadowed by a certain couple who were going to be there, and as the designated driver, she preferred not to have to drive to and from the party in some stupid costume.

Kaito eventually came up with a compromise, which was how she ended up wearing a headband with a small star-shaped pin on it. The house the party was set to take place at was decked to the nines, complete with fog machines, jack-o-lanterns with bizarre faces carved into them, and yard decorations that made it look like a mausoleum in the middle of a graveyard. Kaito shivered as he took in the sight. "I appreciate one of our old classmates deciding to organize a get-together like this, but I'm starting to have second thoughts about this."

"Scared?" Maki asked, turning off the car and sticking the keys in her pocket.

Kaito shook his head. "Of course not! I'm the Luminary of the Stars, and I never get scared! I just know this particular old friend of ours likes to tease me about...certain things." The couple got out of the car and he adjusted his big, unwieldy astronaut costume. "He knows he always gave me the creeps and uses that to his advantage."

Maki didn't feel like teasing him again, so she started towards the house. Kaito scrambled to keep up with her, making sure they didn't get too separated in the spooky front yard. Maki hadn't even begun to raise her hand to knock before the front door slowly slid open with a loud, over dramatic creaking noise. A wave of fog came rushing out of the house as a creepy, high-pitched laugh rang out in the middle. "A pleasure to see you both here tonight," the voice said. A gloved hand reached slowly out of the fog and beckoned them to step forward. "Please. Do come in. This gathering is open to both the living...and the dead."

As the hand retracted, Kaito audibly gulped and stayed rooted in his spot. He merely stared at the receding fog, waiting for the owner of the house to appear from inside. When the fog cleared and nobody was in the doorway, he audibly whined, but Maki dragged him inside by his forearm regardless. She would have been lying if she said she didn't find amusement in watching Kaito get freaked out by the holiday, but she could only get so much mileage out of that by standing on Korekiyo's front porch. "Thank you for inviting us," she said as the door screeched closed behind them. "Are we the first to get here?"

Kiyo appeared from the shadows, shaking his head. His costume seemed to be a somewhat generic uniform, but on his face he wore a mask, a zipper where his mouth would be. Despite the zipper being firmly closed, they could hear his voice perfectly when he spoke. "No, I should be the one to thank you for coming. I know how one of you feels about my...aesthetic, and it means a lot to me that you came regardless. Some of us have already arrived, so please feel free to mingle."

"So what're you supposed to be?" Kaito asked.

Kiyo shook his head. "My costume does not have any deeper meaning, don't think too hard about it."

"That's not unsettling at all," Kaito grumbled as he and Maki made their way to the kitchen, leaving Kiyo's smart remark about the astronaut costume to fall on deaf ears. Three of their old classmates were already present, and they all greeted the couple with wide smiles (for the most part.) "Hey, Tenko's here!" Kaito called, waving at the friend they had the most contact with.

The red jumpsuit-clad woman nodded at him and gave a warm smile to Maki. "Hey, Maki," she said. "It's nice to see you, as always!"

"What're you?" Kaito asked, unfazed by her attempt at ignoring him.

Tenko's face morphed took on a displeased expression. "Typical. You would use that kind of language when I'm dressed as a badass woman."

One of their other classmates giggled, using this as a good point to jump into the discussion. "In his defense, you are a female version of a character who's typically a male, so it's understandable he would take a moment to recognize you."

Tenko rolled her eyes, putting her hands on her hips. "Don't make excuses for him, Tsumugi! Superheroes become the fairer sex all the time!"

Tsumugi pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. "Yeah, but Daredevil? Hardly anyone's first choice for a genderbend."

"We're here for ten seconds and you start spewing nerd shit," Maki said flatly. "Never change, Tsumugi."

Tsumugi gave Maki a smile. "I could say the same to you, Maki. Do you like my cosplay?" She showed off her costume by twirling, putting her hard work on full display. If not for her blue hair and glasses, she would have looked like a stunning recreation of a character. "I'll admit it's re-used from the last con I went to, but I didn't think you guys would mind too much."

A deep, gravelly voice sounded out from just out of sight, saying, "And here I am, wearing a red hat and calling myself a gnome."

Kaito laughed and jabbed a thumb in Maki's direction. "Don't sweat it, Ryoma, it's still not as lazy as Maki Roll's costume."

"I wasn't going to dress as the sun," Maki said.

"You weren't gonna be the sun," he grumbled. The rest of his complaint was cut off though, as the door creaked open again and screams rang out through the house. The two voices were all too familiar to Maki, but she was grateful for the head's up that she could use to start preparing herself for having to interact with children again.

The conversation resumed, but Maki could hear four distinct sets of footsteps approaching, and the dread it filled her with was enough to counteract her excitement to see the two people who were arguably her best friends. The Saihara family, complete with their two children, burst into the kitchen triumphantly. Of course, they were all wearing matching costumes, and most of the party-goers admirably cooed at how sickeningly adorable it was.

Maki, however, was more annoyed than anything. "Of all the things you could dress as, you chose the fucking shark family?"

Kaede put a finger to her lips, struggling to reach her hand over the fake foam teeth that circled her neck. "Watch your language around the girls, Maki."

Aika, the older daughter, started clapping her flippers and singing the song in question, and Kochou—her sister—eagerly joined in.

Tsumugi's smile faded as the young girls sang and danced in circles around their parents. "Okay, it's slightly less cute when they start singing the song."

Shuichi smiled sheepishly. "The moment they laid eyes on these costumes, they had their hearts set on it, and we couldn't let them down." Aika pointed at her dad when she reached the pivotal verse about daddy shark, and Kochou did the same.

"You gotta admit that's cute," Ryoma said, putting his hands in his pockets.

Maki didn't agree. "You should have let them down."

The sound of her voice snapped Aika out of her trance-like state and she whirled around to face one of her favorite people in the world. "Maki!" she screeched, clapping her hands. "What are you for Halloween?"

Maki pointed at the shitty star pin on her headband. "Star."

"Not just any star," Kaito said, ready to pick up his rant where he left off. "Good ol' Maki Roll is Polaris, the North Star!"

There were exactly two proper nouns Aika understood in that sentence, and she happily clapped along to the second one. "North Star! I heard about that!"

Kaito grinned proudly. "Did you know Polaris is about four hundred light years away? That means the North Star we see in the sky tonight is how much light it was giving off four hundred years ago, so it's like looking into a window to the past. It could have exploded two hundred years ago and we wouldn't even know it!"

Aika and Kochou stared at Kaito blankly. Kochou's face scrunched up into a confused and vaguely concerned expression, but Maki determined it seemed to be caused by a tuft of her dark hair falling into her face.

"Anyway," Kiyo said, entering the kitchen with another guest at his side. "It's good to see you two. I believe this is the first time I've seen you since you...reproduced."

The new guest, decked out in pirate gear, chuckled at his side. "A weird way to put it, but yeah. I think the last time I saw you was right before the older one was born."

Kaede smiled at him and gave him the best attempt at a hug she could in the big, awkward shark costume. "Good to see you again too, Rantaro."

Shuichi nodded at Kiyo. "And it's always a pleasure, Kiyo. You'll have to tell me about your latest findings before we leave tonight."

"Yes, I do have much intrigue to share with you," Kiyo said. "I look forward to it immensely."

Rantaro wasn't the last guest to show up, but that was when the party started, some people splitting off into groups and others moving between old classmates to mingle. Rantaro and Kiyo, who were both notorious for spending more time out of town than in it, made it a point to catch up with each and every one of their classmates that showed up.

"So did you invite our whole group here?" Kaede asked Kiyo when he was with them.

Kiyo responded by shaking his head slowly. "No. I realized some of my guests would be with their offspring, so I neglected to invite the less...savory ones for their sakes."

"Thanks for that, Kiyo," Shuichi said, adjusting his shark costume. "I don't know how I would have handled Miu traumatizing our kids."

"I would much rather avoid making them watch her grope me," Kaede agreed.

Kiyo nodded sagely. "A sight none of us would want to see either. As far as I understand it, that job falls exclusively to Shuichi, and I'd say he's pretty good at it, judging by the evidence presented."

The couple immediately blushed and averted their gaze. "D-don't say something like that where they can hear you," Kaede stuttered.

During that conversation, Rantaro was busy catching up with Kaito and Maki. Kaito was coming up with excuses as to why he hadn't gone into space (yet) and almost everything one of them said reminded Rantaro of an anecdote from his travels that he could share. Eventually, though, Aika wandered to them and tugged on Maki's pant leg. "Maki," she said. "Maaaaki."

Maki sighed and looked down to the intruder. "Hello," she said flatly. "Go back to your mommy shark, please."

Aika smiled wide and giggled loudly as he scurried back to her mom, humming the baby shark song loudly. Rantaro watched her and laughed. "You're still just as good with kids as ever, I see," he said to Maki.

"Unfortunately," Maki agreed.

Rantaro twirled a lock of his hair around his pointer finger as he shifted his gaze back to the couple. "So..."

"I don't think I like your tone," Maki said. "But continue."

Rantaro held his hands up defensively. "I'm just saying, you're getting older, and you've been married a while..."

Kaito blushed and Maki glared daggers at Rantaro. "Do you want to die?" she spat. "That's not gonna happen."

Rantaro opened his mouth to speak, but Kaito interrupted. "Say, didn't you have a kid recently, Rantaro?"

"Yeah, sure did," Rantaro said. "She's a cute one, too. Would you like to see her?"

The couple gave two opposite answers at the same time, and while Kaito moved around Rantaro's shoulder to watch him pull out his phone, Maki turned and marched toward someone else. Despite how often they saw each other, she decided to end up at Tenko's side, praying she wasn't talking about her own child. Unfortunately, the moment she had reached the group of Tenko, Ryoma and Tsumugi, one of them was asking questions about family. "Don't you have a kid, too?" Ryoma asked. "Where's your family at?"

Tenko seemed visibly pained to have to talk to a man, but it seemed her pride about her family had overridden that. She puffed out her chest and put her hands on her hips. "I'll have you know my beautiful baby Toumi is resting back at home with Himiko. She never did like Halloween, so she chose to spend quality time with the baby."

"You adopted, right?" Tsumugi asked, receiving a nod in return. "Right. I think I'd end up adopting too, honestly. Either way, my career as a cosplayer would be done, but I'd rather that happen from the financial strain of having a kid over my body getting ruined."

"Your body wouldn't get ruined!" Tenko spat. "Why, just look at Kaede! She's had two and she's still just as gorgeous as the day I met her. The only reason Himiko and I adopted our dear, sweet little Toumi was because I'd rather die than get pumped full of a male's spe—"

"I've heard enough," Maki said, frantically looking for someone else to talk to. Everywhere she turned, there were either conversations about children or the Saihara kids themselves, and the only relief could find had to come in the form of the religious fanatic or the entomologist, and neither of those topics were particularly appealing to her either. She was left with no other option, so she ended up at Gonta's side, hoping that his intimidating figure would ward off the ankle-biters. Sure, the anecdotes and bug facts he was spilling in his strange manner of speaking were completely uninteresting, but it wasn't enough to give her a headache.

It wasn't long before Kaito appeared at her side, Rantaro presumably missing to show someone else baby pictures. "Hey Maki Roll, hey Gonta," he said, wrapping an arm around the former's waist. "Whatcha talking about?"

Maki put on a smirk and said, "Gonta was just telling me about the praying mantis. Hey, could you remind me what the female does to her mates?"

Gonta put a finger to his chin. "Gonta don't remember that, but Gonta can say that praying mantis tears her mate's head off."

Maki shot a menacing look at Kaito. "Interesting."

Kaito raised an eyebrow. "I don't get it. Hey, what are you dressed as, Gonta?"

Gonta looked down at his khaki clothes and shrugged. "Gonta didn't have costume ready, so Gonta just put on expedition clothes."

Tsumugi peeked over Kaito's shoulder, her sudden appearance startling Maki. "Weird," she said. "With those muscles, you look just like a character in an anime..."

Suddenly, another screech echoed through the house, causing everyone at the party to jump. "Oh my god!" Gonta screamed, cupping his cheeks in his hands.

"Yeah, that one," Tsumugi said under her breath.

Maki investigated the source of the screeching, which seemed to be coming from just around the corner. When she poked her head into the next room, she saw Kochou and Aika, shivering on the floor in each other's arms. Kiyo was sitting in a chair nearby, but he seemed to be the only adult in the room. "What's going on here?" Maki was wary of making her presence known, but the fact that the kids were apart from their parents was mildly concerning.

"Maki!" Aika yelled, trying to get up to run to her "auntie" but getting tangled in her sister's frantic limbs.

"Ah, hello," Kiyo said, giving Maki a small wave. "I was providing entertainment by telling the children a ghost story."

"Kiyo's so scary," Kochou whined.

"Little ones," Kiyo said, taking on a tone that made it sound like he was reminding them of something he'd said before. "Halloween is meant to be scary. Cultures all over the world have relished in being scared on this night for centuries."

The girls merely whined in response, but Maki wasn't phased. "Where are their parents?" she asked.

"Enjoying the festivities without worrying about tripping over their own spawn," Kiyo explained.

Maki left the room without another word. As much as she bemoaned them, she did miss being able to spend time with her friends without the children being present, so she wasted no time in tracking them down for that exact purpose. When she found them talking to Kirumi, she wordlessly slipped into the group to listen to one of Shuichi's stories from work. He was occasionally interrupted by Kaede making a smart remark, and always responded by shooting her a pointed, somewhat charged look. The conversation they shared from there was nice, and once Kaito joined in, the way everyone laughed and exchanged jokes reminded Maki of the good old days, before the other couple got weighed down by the decisions they had made. The realization that she truly, deeply missed her friends hit her hard, and if it weren't for the light-hearted nature of the conversation, she would have had a hard time keeping a straight face about it. Over the course of nine months, their entire lives had changed from one decision, and this kind of conversation was a relic of times long gone, now more of a pleasant surprise than a regular occurrence.

What else had been lost to time that she hadn't realized was missing? What else had the Saiharas taken from them? How could they be so selfish? And did they need to add insult to injury by having _two_ of the little parasites? As Maki's train of thought wandered, she must have shown her emotional journey on her face, because after giving Kaede another wink and eyebrow wiggle, Shuichi caught her gaze and seemed to become concerned. "Maki? You alright?" he asked.

A tipsy Kaito seemed to notice her expression for the first time, craning his neck to see her face. "Oh, you know all about her resting bitch face, bro."

"Yeah, I'm fine." Now that she was snapped back to reality, Maki rejoined the conversation, determined to actually try and enjoy the time with her former best friends.

The party ended and the class went their separate ways, complete with empty promises to get together more often. On the drive home, Maki heaved a deep sigh, her entire petite frame slumping as she exhaled. "Kaito, I think I hate them."

"What?" Kaito was drunk, but he was able to keep his composure long enough to hear Maki retrace her steps from earlier, telling him about how she resented Shuichi and Kaede for making such a huge decision. When she was done, he shook his head. "Come now, Maki Roll, you don't mean that. Kaede and Shuichi will always be our best friends, and they could have a million babies before that changes."

Maki sighed. "I guess you're right."

"I think you're just being overdramatic," Kaito continued. "Are you moody because you're on your period or something?"

Maki gasped at his blunt wording. "No, you idiot, I'm on birth control."

They shared a laugh, after which he leaned back in his seat, eyes closed. "It was nice having some time to the four of us. And Kirumi for the time she was there."

Maki nodded, eyes glued to the road. "Yeah, but I bet they were ready to have time to the two of them."

"Huh?"

"Did you see the way Shuichi was looking at Kaede all night?" When Kaito didn't respond, she continued, "Those horny-ass sharks are going to bang tonight, and you don't need to be the Ultimate Detective to see that."

_three_.

As they tend to do, the end of year holidays kept coming, and it was only a matter of time until The Big One was upon them.

Christmas started like most other mornings. Consciousness slowly crept up on Maki, but the warmth of her husband's embrace kept her in place until he started rousing from his own slumber. His big, obnoxiously loud yawn was the sign that he was awake, and the arm draped over her tightened around her slowly, like a tree snake lazily constricting its perch. His palm found a perch of its own, and Maki could feel her face heat up at the sensation.

"You're not slick," she said. Her hand moved to his, holding it in place to tell him that she was being playful in her scolding.

Kaito laughed, kissing Maki's neck and pressing closer to her. "Merry Christmas, Maki Roll. I love you."

Against her better judgment, Maki let a pleased noise leave her lips. "Did you get me anything this year?"

"Of course I did," Kaito said sleepily. "Why?"

Maki smiled. "I'm not going to have sex with you if you're going to do it to make up for not getting me anything."

She heard a chuckle and a promise that he did, in fact, get her something, and that was all she really wanted to hear. She turned around and the only words spoken for the next little while were whispered, gasped, and moaned.

Once things had calmed down and pajamas had been put back on, the two laid in bed doing their usual morning phone routines, catching up to social media and seeing what had happened while they were asleep.

Kaito gasped loudly, darted wide eyes to Maki's phone screen and looked back to his own. "What?"

"You'll see," Kaito said, jumping to his feet in a hurry. "But later. For now, let's open presents, yeah?"

Maki raised an eyebrow, but followed him into the living room anyway, warily pocketing her phone. This kind of behavior wasn't too unusual from the easily excited Kaito, but the dead serious expression he had when he gasped and the way he seemed to be purposefully distracting Maki from her phone gave her a bad feeling.

She decided it would be easier to trust that she didn't want to see whatever it was, so she shifted her focus to the modest gift exchange waiting for her in the living room. Kaito sat on the floor in front of the Christmas tree with a small box nestled in his lap. Just like every year, the sight made her nostalgic for the Christmas mornings at her orphanage, where kids would gather under the tree and enjoy each other's company in lieu of any gift giving. She knew he always did that on purpose, and every year she forgot whether she appreciated it or despised it.

She sat in front of him and he gave her a smile that seemed ever so slightly forced. "I'll go first this year, Maki Roll." He extended his arms, presenting the package wrapped in purple, glittery wrapping paper. As Maki started delicately unwrapping the package, Kaito gave her a quick disclaimer. "It's not the fanciest gift I've ever given ya, but I hope you like it anyway."

Under the wrapping paper was a small brown box that was obviously meant to hold jewelry, and inside sat a modest yet beautiful charm bracelet. The charms hanging from it were mostly space-themed, with stars, rocket ships and the occasional heart-shaped moon. In the middle, the biggest star was engraved with Maki's name. "Your name was an extra charge," Kaito explained. "But I wanted to get it to show you that you're the brightest star in my sky."

The sentiment almost brought tears to Maki's eyes, but she held them back in favor of a scathing remark about sappy her husband was. Despite the venom, she slipped it on her wrist with a quiet "I love it."

She had hoped he didn't hear the more tender expression, but judging by his shit-eating grin, she couldn't get it past him.

The next order of business was the significantly bigger box behind Maki. She lifted it and handed it to Kaito, careful not to jostle it too much to betray what it was. Of course, he noticed this and shook it the moment he had his hands on it, hearing all the little parts tumble around inside. "Hmmm…" He put on a contemplative look, but he clearly had no guesses.

"You'll never figure it out unless you open it," Maki said, reaching up to fiddle with her new bling.

What came next was a flurry of wrapping paper getting ripped to shreds, and the dark red paper made the surrounding area look a little like a crime scene. "Holy shit! It's—" he paused to check the box, "—that many inches would be...uh…

"It's a really tall Saturn V model! How much cash did you drop on this, Maki Roll?"

"You don't want to know," she promised him.

"Damn, Maki Roll, it's so cool!" Kaito was like a wide-eyed child, examining all the specifications on the side of the box. "This is, like, a real collector's item!"

Maki shrugged. "I know you're not much of collector, but the website said it was a must-have for your favorite astronaut, and I figured only astronaut was close enough."

Kaito broke out into hearty laughter, and once that had subsided, he set the box aside and pulled Maki in for a hug. They embraced and exchanged another "I love you", content with just holding each other under the tree.

After a few minutes, they broke apart and Maki put on a serious expression. "So what were you trying so hard to hide from me?"

Kaito blushed and averted his gaze. "O-oh, it was nothing. Don't worry about it."

Maki was unimpressed. "I hope you know I'll probably see it when you aren't keeping me off my phone anymore."

Kaito sighed and slumped his shoulders. "I just didn't wanna ruin your mood, y'know? But maybe it'll be better if you hear it from me."

"I'm waiting."

"I think you should, uh, look at the Christmas post Kaede made."

Maki raised an eyebrow and fished her phone from her pocket. The journey to what was supposed to be Kaede's professional page was a short one that Maki knew all too well. A tense couple of seconds later, everything clicked into place at once. "Are you kidding me?"

Kaito winced as she read the post that had the nerve to show itself in front of her. The picture was Kaede sitting in an armchair with Aika and Kochou in her lap. A Christmas tree was set up behind them, and on one of the arms of the chair sat an all too familiar chalkboard. Kaede was teary eyed, probably from crying happy tears about the message on the board. The big Christmas present the Saiharas had for everyone was the announcement of a new arrival, due sometime in July. The idea of having to deal with another child in her life immediately soured Maki's mood, and she showed it by dropping her phone on the ground in between her legs.

"So you found it?" Kaito asked.

"Unfortunately," Maki sighed. "Good god, those people need to learn what a fucking condom is."

"Hah, that's one way to put it." Kaito leaned forward and tried to gauge Maki's expression. "I guess whatever makes them happy makes us happy, yeah?"

Maki groaned and brought herself to a stand again. "I don't have to be happy for them. In fact, I feel bad that Kaede's only ruining her body further."

Kaito followed her lead, coming to his feet as well. "Oh, please. If she cared that much about that she would have been more careful. I think they just wanted a mini Shuichi instead of two mini Kaedes."

The old point of contention that had gotten him in trouble countless times brought a smile to Maki's face. "Don't let them hear you say that," she warned. "Kaede would beat your ass. Besides, what makes you so sure it's a boy this time?"

"I can feel it in my gut," Kaito responded, pounding his fists together.

"That's what you said about the first one."

"W-well, I'm sure about it this time!" he insisted, pounding his fists again.

"And that's what you said about the last one. Now let's get some food and try to forget the worst present of the year."

_four_.

Kaito was put in charge of congratulating the Saihara family on their imminent third child so Maki could avoid interacting with them as long as possible. However, the pettiness only lasted until their New Years Eve get together the next week. Kaito, again, was in charge of coordinating, and since it was being held at their house that year, Maki was more than prepared to drink without fear of anything going wrong. The only hitch in her plan was the fact that she didn't have faith in herself to hold her tongue around the couple that had slighted her.

The party (if it could be called that) was off to a bad start before the door had even opened all the way. As soon as there was enough room to squeeze their little bodies through, Aika and Kochou were running around the house like bats of out hell. When Kaede and Shuichi waltzed in after them, they were met with a glare unlike any other. "Sorry we're late," Shuichi said, trying to ignore the aura of malice Maki was emitting. "Getting two hyperactive dancer children dressed and ready to go is a lot harder than it sounds, and it already sounds pretty difficult."

"I wasn't told they were coming today," Maki said, trying to keep her tone under control.

Kaito raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, I kinda assumed they'd have a babysitter too."

Kaede shook her head. "Yeah, that wasn't gonna happen. Ever since the girls learned about their new sibling, they've stuck to me like glue."

"I'm gonna be favorite sister!" Aika screamed from across the room, picking up on the s-word.

"No, I'm best sister!" Kochou countered.

Maki pinched the bridge of her nose and growled, "You brought your kids to a party where you knew there would be alcohol."

Kaede blushed and sheepishly smiled. "Y-yeah, I don't think Shuichi was planning to drink tonight anyway."

Now Kaito was displeased, though to a much lesser degree. "Whoa whoa, bro, we always drink when we get together on New Years. We even splurged for the nice alcohol! Do you want all that to go to waste?"

"We didn't drink together on New Years when Kaede was pregnant with Aika," Shuichi said. Kaito didn't respond, forcing him to continue. "But if you actually got good alcohol this time, I guess just a little bit won't hurt."

"There's my sidekick!" Kaito cheered, slapping a hand on Shuichi's shoulder and leading him toward the kitchen. "Now let's get you a glass. Want one, Maki Roll?"

"Please," she called after him.

After the guys disappeared into the kitchen, Kaede crossed her arms and turned to Maki. "Is everything alright, Maki?" She asked. "You seem unhappy."

Normally, Maki would have shrugged off Kaede's concern with a lie, but hearing the children holler and scream at her feet only soured her mood to the point that hiding her displeasure would be impossible.

But that didn't mean she couldn't at least put off talking about it. "I am unhappy, but let me get some alcohol in me before I tell you why."

Kaede tried to press the issue, but didn't get anywhere before the men were back, Shuichi with one half-empty cup and Kaito with two full glasses.

Aika, being a three-year old, took one look at her father holding something and reached up to grab it. "Can I have a drink, daddy?"

"Oh, absolutely not," Shuichi said, holding his cup higher despite where it was being perfectly out of her reach already. "You and your sister can get juice."

"Speaking of which, is there any juice we can give them?" Kaede asked, pointedly turning to speak to Kaito.

But Maki wasn't going to be swerved so easily. "Probably not, considering this is a child-free household. We could give them a hell of a lot of caffeine though."

Kaito handed Maki her glass and took a swig of his own before answering. "Actually, I think I have some orange juice hiding in the fridge somewhere, if you wanna look."

Kaede clapped her hands together and gave Kaito a wide smile. "Great! Come on, girls, let's get some juice."

"Juice!" The girls scream-chanted the word over and over as they followed their mom into the kitchen.

The living room was quiet at last, which Maki used to finally take a sip of her drink. However, the second the liquid passed her lips and sank into her throat, her typical favorite drink was more unappealing than she could ever remember. "Ugh, did we really get the good stuff? It tastes like garbage."

Shuichi shrugged. "I watched Kaito pour it, it's definitely your drink."

"Maybe they just got a bad batch," Kaito said, his cup noticeably almost empty.

Maki puffed her cheeks out in a pout and seriously contemplated handing her cup off to Kaito. "Tonight gets better and better," she grumbled, taking another small sip.

Even though it tasted like ass, she wasn't going to waste expensive alcohol, so she drank it little by little as the night wore on. Despite their valiant efforts, Aika and Kochou were unable to stay up long enough to celebrate the holiday and ended up crashing in the guest room until it was time to leave. That stroke of luck instantly improved Maki's mood, but Kaede didn't seem pleased for some reason.

It could have had something to do with the conversation she was having with a clearly inebriated Kaito while Shuichi was tucking the girls in. "So, d'ya know what it is yet?"

Kaede shook her head, a look of exasperation on her face. "We told you this the last two times, Kaito, I'm not far enough along to know what gender they are."

A perfectly valid answer that Kaito was not willing to accept. He put his free hand on his hip and took another swig of his alcohol. "Okay, but like, do you have any ideas? Like, a gut feeling?"

Kaede sighed, knowing full well where this question was going to go. "No, Kaito, I have no idea what they could be."

"Well, I have a feeling in my gut!" Kaito paused to burp, which cracked himself up and even earned a chuckle from Maki. The pregnant woman who just got a face full of beer burp was less excited about it, though. "Well, besides that one," he continued. "I just know that this one's going to be a min—"

"Don't even bother finishing that thought," Shuichi said as he stepped back into the room. "Whatever gender they end up being, I think we've made it pretty clear that there is not going to be any mini-anyones."

"The other two are proof enough of that," Maki said.

"_Aika_ and _Kochou_ sure are," Kaede said, emphasizing each name with a pointed look in Maki's direction.

Sensing irritation, Maki said again, "The other two."

"Do you have a problem with those two, Maki?" Kaede asked, putting her hands on her hips.

"Not a one," Maki said, taking another baby sip of her drink that was just now reaching the halfway point.

Kaede seemed unconvinced. "I don't know if I believe that, seeing as you've been in a shitty mood all night."

The way she spat the curse caused Shuichi to gasp, but Maki merely raised an eyebrow at the other woman. "Have I? Maybe it has something to do with my drink being bad. Or perhaps it's because I've had to deal with children all night. Something that could have been avoided if my friends cared about how I feel about kids."

Kaede's jaw dropped and her eyes widened. "Don't talk like we brought them over specifically to mess with you. Besides, Aika and Kochou are total sweethearts, which you'd know if you gave them a chance!"

"I'd rather not," Maki said.

Kaede put a hand on her stomach, making Maki think about how much smaller it used to look before carrying two children, and then how it would look in a matter of months. "Well, if that's how you're going to be about our kids, maybe I don't want them around you anymore."

Maki rolled her eyes. "That would be ideal, yes."

"Hmph," Kaede spun on her heels and started marching toward the guest bedroom. "Well, if you have a problem with my babies, you have a problem with me. Let's go, Shuichi."

"H-hey, wait!"

By the time Kaito had processed what the argument was about and tried to help out a stop to it, Kaede was already out the door with Shuichi hot on her heels. "Happy new year, Maki," Kaede spat before slamming the door closed dramatically.

"What the hell just happened?" Kaito said, sobriety slowly creeping up on him.

Maki didn't respond, instead glaring at the closed door. She wasn't sure what she was feeling. Was it satisfaction over telling off Kaede? Was it anger about her deciding that time with her children was more important than time with her friends? If that was the case, was that really worth getting angry over?

Whatever it was she was feeling was going to have to wait until her alcohol wasn't making her feel nauseous anymore. "You can have the rest of my drink," she said, handing it off to Kaito. "And Shuichi's, since he barely took a sip."

"Maki Roll, wait!"

"No, _you_ wait until after _I_ throw up."


	2. Chapter 2

_five_.

It isn't unusual for friends to have arguments that open rifts between them, and the fight between Kaede and Maki was no different. The problem with their particular spat was that neither woman thought she had done anything wrong and therefore the responsibility to reach out and apologize fell to the other one, which lead to a full month without contact. An attempt to reach out wasn't made until the morning of Maki's birthday, when the sound of her phone ringing woke her up for the day. She was too tired to check the screen to see who called, so hearing the sound of Kaede's voice for the first time in a month came as a surprise. "Maki, can we talk? I want to wish one of my best friends a happy birthday." Maki contemplated hanging up and going back to sleep, but Kaede sounded like she was holding back tears on the other end, so she decided to at least hear her out. She gave Kaede permission to continue and heard her heave a sigh. "I'm sorry about the way I acted on New Year's," she said. "This whole time, I've been thinking about which one of us should apologize..."

"And you realized you should?" Maki asked.

Judging just by the tone of Kaede's voice, Maki could tell she was putting on a pout. "No! Actually, I came to the conclusion that we should both apologize. I'm sorry I brought Aika and Kochou to your house without your permission. I know how you feel about kids and I should have warned you before I brought them."

Maki nodded along, but her face heated up when she realized she wasn't visible to Kaede. "Right."

"But that doesn't mean you're not to blame, you know," Kaede said. "I've talked to Shuichi about this, and we've come to the conclusion that you let your hatred of kids get in the way of our friendship."

Maki opened her mouth to protest, but what came out was a sigh. The realization of how melodramatic she'd been dawned on her, and the weight of the embarrassment was almost too much to bear. "You're right, Kaede. You and Shuichi are our best friends, and I shouldn't keep letting how I feel about your children prevent me from being happy for you. I don't agree with your choices, but it makes you happy, and that's what matters, I guess."

"Was that supposed to be an apology?" Kaede asked, stifling a laugh.

"Would you rather I hang up?" Maki shot back playfully.

The laughter on the other side was a sound Maki wouldn't have admitted to missing, but she couldn't deny the warmth it spread in her chest. "Right. I should be glad I got that much," Kaede said. "Happy birthday, Maki."

"Thanks Kaede. And I'm sorry."

They bid each other farewell and Maki put her phone back down. She looked to Kaito to see if the conversation had woken him up, but as usual, the heaviest sleeper she knew was still fast asleep. What a perfect opportunity, she thought, to go back to sleep for a little bit. It was her birthday, and she was going to sleep in if she wanted to.

She managed to grab another hour of sleep before Kaito was up and pestering her about what day it was. "Happy birthday Maki Roll!" he cheered as he shook her awake.

Maki turned to face him with a smirk on her face. "You're too late this year, idiot."

"What are you talking about?" Kaito asked. "I'm always the first to say happy birthday to ya."

Maki shook her head and pointed at her phone. "I got a call from Kaede this morning. She hasn't spoken to me in a month and still beat you to the punch."

Kaito gave her a smile that stretched from ear to ear. "I guess I should take that to mean you two finally made up?" he asked. "Well, if that's the case, I guess I can't be too disappointed."

Maki shook her head with a sigh. "There's no discouraging you, is there?"

"Not when my wife has a birthday to be celebrating!" Kaito replied, flashing a thumbs up. "Now where do you wanna go for dinner tonight?"

The rest of the day was rather uneventful until the time to go out for dinner rolled around. Kaito drove them to her favorite restaurant and, by some stroke of luck, there wasn't much of a crowd to speak of, so they were sat immediately and everything progressed smoothly. The only bump in the road was the fact that Maki's meat seemed to be undercooked, but she didn't say anything because she was so hungry that waiting any longer to eat sounded like torture.

Once they were mostly done with their meal and waiting on the check, Kaito produced an envelope from his coat pocket and handed it to Maki gingerly. "What did you get me, a card and twenty bucks?" Maki asked. "Sounds like a present from a grandparent. Not that I would know."

Kaito shook his head firmly. "Just open it!"

Maki tore into the envelope to find the card she was expecting. Of course, it was a space-themed birthday card that read more like it was aimed at ten-year-olds than fully grown women, but that didn't matter so much anymore when Maki opened it and watched two slips of paper fall out onto her lap. She picked them up and read the name of her favorite band printed on the front of each slip and gasped in disbelief. "No way..."

"Yes way," Kaito said proudly, slapping the table and stabbing his palm with his fork in the process. "Ow! Er, yeah, I bought 'em the minute they started sellin' them. They're pretty decent seats, too. Only downside is that I had to sacrifice goin' all out for Christmas because I was savin' up for when these bad boys went on sale."

Maki looked at the price on the tickets and winced. "You weren't kidding." The next bit that caught her eye was the date. "How far in advance do they even sell these? June thirteenth?"

"They are kind of a big deal, y'know," Kaito said. "Of course they'd start sellin' their tickets super early."

Maki smiled and tucked the concert tickets back into the birthday card. "Let's hope you don't forget by then, yeah?"

"I'd never forget our concert date, Maki Roll," Kaito promised.

"Thank you, Kaito," Maki said quietly, half hoping he wouldn't hear her over the ambient sounds of the restaurant. He merely responded with another wide smile and a motion to grab his wallet to pay that check that had just been laid on the table.

On the ride home, Maki's stomach started suffering the dire consequences of the undercooked meat, and the disturbance got so bad that once they were home, she wanted nothing more than to lie down and sleep until the pain had subsided. While she was changing into her pajamas for the night, casually tossing her shirt and bra to the side and grabbing her large, worn pajama shirt, Kaito attempted to stop her by wrapping his hands around hers. "There's no need to get dressed so fast, y'know," he said under his breath, gazing directly into her eyes. Usually, the sultry look he was wearing would work immediate magic on Maki, but right now any sense of arousal was overshadowed by the constant fear of throwing up.

"Sorry," she said, pushing him away. "I'm not feeling up to birthday sex tonight."

"Is something wrong?" he asked, seductive tone vanishing completely in favor of a more concerned one.

"My meat wasn't cooked right," Maki told him, putting her shirt on and stepping out of her pants for the day.

Kaito put his hands on his hips. "Huh, weird. Usually that restaurant's better about that kinda thing. Well, no worries. We can just postpone that until my birthday. Until then, you feel better, alright?"

"That's the plan."

Despite his plans getting derailed at the end, Kaito's grand gesture of pricey concert tickets wasn't lost on Maki, and even though her stomach was doing cartwheels from bad food, she felt more loved that night than she had in a long time, and her heart felt like it could soar. If only she was feeling better, she could have shown her appreciation by rocking that man's world.

But there was always next time.

_six_.

Not long after March started, Maki and Kaito got themselves roped into helping out in regards to Kaede's pregnancy, and considering that it was the roughly the same task they were given during the first one, it seemed they were the typical choice. Shuichi somehow found some time to slip away from his family long enough to give the Momotas their mission, and it came in the form of a sealed envelope, personally delivered from his hands to Maki's. "I trust you don't have to be reminded of what happened last time we tried to entrust you with this," Shuichi said, causing Kaito to blush.

"You entrusted _me_," Maki reminded him. "I think your mistake was _not_ letting the idiot of the house in on it."

"Alright, get your laughs now," Kaito said, snatching the envelope from Shuichi. "So what's the plan with this?"

"Kaede wants her birthday present to be our child's gender reveal," Shuichi explained. "Which means I'm going to ask you to do kind of what you did with Aika."

Kaito pursed his lips in thought. "That was when we got paint for the letters on her chalk board, right?"

Shuichi nodded. "Yes, and I'd appreciate it if you could find actually fitting colors this time. Don't get me wrong, Aika likes her purple and red, but this time, I want Kaede to know what gender they are just by looking at the board."

"You say that like it was our fault the craft store was out of pink," Maki said, reaching up to twirl a strand of hair around her finger. "But we'll try our best."

"Thank you." Shuichi punched his fist into his palm, determination in his eyes. "Here's my plan..."

After the idea had been shared, Shuichi left, reiterating that he also didn't want to know the gender until Kaede's birthday, which meant roughly two weeks of having to keep a secret from both of their best friends. Sensing how difficult a task that could be with Kaito involved, Maki wasted no time in making sure the envelope was tucked away somewhere only she knew about until it was time to buy the paint.

It wasn't that she didn't trust herself to keep the secret. She knew for a fact that if Kaito saw the inside of that envelope, ruining the surprise would have been the first thing he did. She figured telling him that much would be enough for him to connect the dots, but of course he didn't think twice about it.

Late in the morning on Kaede's birthday, Maki and Kaito found themselves rolling up to the Saihara household to find it empty, just as Shuichi said it would be. "So where are they again?" Kaito asked while he rummaged around their front deck for the spare key.

Maki scoffed. "You really forgot after two weeks? He took them out to a birthday brunch."

Kaito snorted, losing track of his search entirely. "Damn, Maki Roll. If that ain't the most old person thing I've ever heard you say. When'd we get to the age where brunch is a thing?"

"Shut up and let us in, this paint is getting heavy." To illustrate her point, Maki shifted the plastic bag from the craft store hanging from her arm.

"Fine, fine." After a couple more seconds of searching the deck, Kaito finally let them into the house and they made their way to the room they knew would serve as the new arrival's. The house looked so significantly different than it did when they first moved in, it was hard to believe it was the same place, and that was only partially due to the obvious evidence of children strewn about. Even with the knowledge that Kaede was a pianist with a non-zero amount of fame, it was still hard to believe she had the funds to add whole new rooms to the modest house, but there they were, walking into a room that didn't even exist a couple of years ago. Most of the decorations in the room were worn hand-me-downs from the time before and immediately after Aika's birth, and seeing all the pink toys and crib made Maki shake her head. "Shame that they're going to have to replace all this stuff."

"What do you mean, Maki?" The answer was obvious, but Kaito couldn't be counted on to take anything beyond face value.

"Right, you haven't seen it yet, have you?" Maki fished the envelope out of the back pocket of her jeans and handed it to her husband. "Read it and weep."

Kaito took the envelope and opened it like he was handling a live bomb. "Well, if I'd known it was in that pocket I woulda gotten it myself eventually. You know what those jeans do to me, Maki Roll. They look so great on your a—"

Maki shushed him sharply, a blush spreading across her cheeks. "Idiot! We're in someone else's house, and in their future baby's room, no less. Show some class for once in your life."

Now it was Kaito's turn to look like a tomato (albeit one with stupid hair). "R-right." The paper he gingerly slipped out of the envelope was a perfect way to change the subject, as the moment he saw what it said, his eyes went wide. "A-ha! I knew it! Kaito Momota, Luminary of the Stars, correct again!"

Maki shook her head and turned to the paint she had set on the ground. "Even a broken clock is right twice a day, I suppose."

"No, this time I knew for sure," Kaito said. "Now let's get painting, yeah? I assume you got a shade of blue that'll be perfect for showin' off Shuichi's new baby boy!"

"Could you say that again, but louder?" Maki asked sarcastically. "I don't think they heard you on the moon."

Volume aside, he was right in that she did buy two different shades of blue. She wasn't sure if Kaede would like the darker blue or the lighter shade, so she got both and decided to paint the wooden letters on the border of the chalkboard in an alternating pattern, just like they'd done for Aika's board. Kaito made himself useful and lugged in a tarp from their house to avoid getting paint all over the room in the process. While they sat on the floor and worked, the discussion turned to the fact that they weren't asked to contribute to Kochou's when she was on the way, but Kaito insisted that the singular shade of pink that Tenko had chosen was probably better than anything they could have gotten her. Maki was unconvinced. "At least we got two shades for each one. What if that brat grows up some day and gets jealous that her siblings have more interesting boards than her?"

"Do you really think she'd get offended about that?" Kaito asked.

"Did you grow up in an orphanage? I know she would." As usual, any mention of the orphanage shut Kaito up immediately. Maki wasn't sure what it was about that detail of her past that always ended discussions in her favor, but she appreciated having a card she could pull from her sleeve when she was sick of a conversation. Unfortunately, this came at a price. "Whoa, Kaito, what did you do?"

"What d'ya mean?" Kaito asked, looking around their work area for anything amiss. "What did I do?"

"Dumbass, you painted the wrong letter." Maki gestured to two consecutive letters that were now the same color. "Now there are two lighter letters in a row and it looks horrendous."

Kaito seemed unperturbed by the mistake. "Oh, that's no big deal. Just paint over the other one with the right color."

"No, that's not how this works," Maki said indignantly. "The colors would mix and it would look even worse."

"Well what do you want me to do, go get a whole new set of letters?" Kaito threw his hands up and nearly sent his paintbrush flying across the room.

Maki sighed, looking at the time. It was just about twenty minutes before the Saihara clan were meant to be back, which was nowhere near enough time to buy whole new letters and paint them from scratch. "No, it's fine. We'll just have to deal with it. Good job, Kaito, you're ruining this kid's life before he even comes out."

Kaito rolled his eyes, moving to start painting the next letter, but that turned into a five-minute-long argument about how he now needed to adjust his entire to-do list of letters. Thankfully, he got his mind wrapped around the concept and they were able to finish their project.

Maki attached the ultrasound picture that was in the envelop to the top corner of the board and wrote out some of the stats Shuichi had told her Kaede would want to see. While Kaito stood above her and watched her begrudgingly write out the information, he found himself fantasizing. What if that wasn't his bro's child Maki was writing about? What if, in some alternate timeline, this was Maki getting excited enough about her _own_ child to scrawl embarrassing fun facts down for the world to see?

It didn't take long for him to realize he shouldn't have been thinking those things. He could dream about having kids all he liked, but even someone like him knew just how far-fetched those wishes were. He snapped himself out of it with a dirty thought and ended up snickering, drawing Maki's attention away from the board. "Hey, Maki Roll, you should put on there the fact about boy babies getting hard-ons inside their moms."

Maki didn't come close to reacting the way he had hoped. Instead of snickering, she incredulously said, "How about I don't do that and we end up living long enough to meet the little prick? Unless, of course, you want the birthday girl to murder you in cold blood."

Kaito put his hands on his hips and barked a laugh. "As if she could!"

"Don't underestimate her because she's pregnant," Maki warned. "She could still kick your ass, and at this rate, I'd let her."

The smackdown did not come, but that was alright. Not long after the board was finished and the set-up was put away neatly, the sound of a car pulling up and doors opening and closing sounded from the driveway, perking Kaito up immediately. "Hey, the birthday girl's back!" He shot out of the room and Maki stood to follow, making sure the door was closed behind her so Kaede wouldn't ruin the surprise by glancing inside. She did that at the same instant the front door opened, and the family was greeted by a very loud Kaito shouting, "Happy birthday, Kaede!"

"If your birthday surprise was just sneaking into my house, I'm afraid I'm going to have to reject that," Kaede remarked flatly. As she spoke the rest of her family remained quiet, except for Shuichi, who gave Kaito a timid greeting. When Maki rounded the corner, all three of the ladies' faces lit up, and the young girls screeched as they rushed to gather around her legs. "Now that's better," Kaede said, smiling warmly at Maki.

Maki gave the same greeting Kaito did, but quieter and to a much better reception. In between trying to placate the children at her knees and greeting her friend, her eyes couldn't help but wander down Kaede's body. Yes, it was her third pregnancy and she carried the extra weight confidently as only a third-time mom could, but that didn't quite stop her from looking like a beached whale in Maki's eyes. She was still beautiful, of course, but once Maki's gaze wandered lower than her chest, she would hesitate ever so slightly to say that.

She was snapped out of her thought process by another screech from the kids beneath her. She rolled her eyes and dropped to their level, ruffling their thick, dark hair. "Hello girls," she said. She wasn't trying to be appealing to them at all, but the damn things were hanging off her every word. "Are you being good to your mom for her birthday?"

Aika nodded firmly with a dead serious look on her face and Kochou followed suit, giggling as she did. "They've been little angels, as always," Kaede said to corroborate their well-thought-out argument. "So what brings you guys here?" Maki gave Kaede a silent look usually only reserved for one of Kaito's screw ups. "B-besides my birthday, of course," she stammered, face reddening.

Maki looked to Shuichi and, when he gave silent confirmation, she stood and said, "We came by early to get your present set up."

Kaede clapped her hands together and smiled even wider, if it were possible. "Oh, that's so sweet! Is it what I asked for, Shuichi?"

"That's an awful big assumption to make," Kaito said.

Resident detective Shuichi hummed in thought. "Actually, it's not that big of a logic leap. But explaining why that is would take all day..."

"I want to see what my baby's going to be!" If she had the physical ability to, Kaede would have darted for the baby's room, but as she was a bit larger, she realized she'd be stopped before making it to her destination. She lumbered over to the chair she was sitting on in the announcement picture. Aika and Kochou darted after her and sat on either side of her, screaming that they too wanted to know what their new sister was going to be.

They were still babies, so Maki couldn't hold the gender confusion against them.

Shuichi's plan was to make the reveal a bit grander, but once Kaede knew what was in store, she had a one-track mind that made the knowledge a higher priority than breathing.

Thankfully, the paint had dried and the chalk board was ready to be moved. Maki and Kaito brought it in facing away from Kaede, which caused her to emit a long, high-pitched whine. "Just show me, already!"

"You sound like you're not the oldest woman in the house, which is sad considering the others are two and three," Maki said.

Meanwhile, the excitement had started getting to Kaito. "I dunno, Maki, I think we should show her now."

Maki didn't really care enough to argue, but she did know Shuichi had a specific idea, so she decided to play devil's advocate. "Didn't Shuichi want Kaede to take a picture with the board before she knew what it said?"

From the side of the chair, Shuichi shook his head. "I've changed my mind. I'm just as eager to know as she is, and I think it would be unfair if I learned first."

"Fair enough," Maki said, flipping the board around suddenly and without any further ado.

On sight, Kaede's jaw dropped and she clapped a hand over her mouth. Tears immediately started running down her face and she tried in vain to push down the sob in her throat. The blues around the chalkboard, which held a message and a picture of the revealing ultrasound, sent her heart soaring. "We're gonna have a boy! Aika, Kochou, you're going to have a little brother!"

The girls who were so set on referring to it as their sister moments ago burst into loud, screeching cheers. Shuichi made an attempt fight back tears himself as a round of hugs was exchanged among the family. It would have been an adorable sight if Maki weren't so ideologically opposed to the idea of what they were celebrating. Instead, she was thinking about how her arms ached from presenting the board for too long, and how Kaito seemed to be getting a little too invested in the proceedings for her liking.

Why was she so opposed to children? She knew how to handle them and they universally loved her, so what was the problem? It wasn't a vanity thing—her body was covered in various scars, marks and bruises, and honestly the stretch marks from pregnancy would be the least ugly addition. Was it spite against the people around her for deciding they all wanted children at more or less the same time? The problem wasn't even the idea of Maki herself having children (although that was the least appealing thought she could imagine), it was the fact that, as previously mentioned, they were becoming more and more a part of her life whether she wanted them to or not. Something that used to be a minor and occasional inconvenience at worst was now a near-daily occurrence, and it gave Maki a sense of melancholy knowing that she would never truly be done dealing with these little combinations of her friends (and the adopted one, but it was the freaky fusions that were running amok in front of her at the moment).

The true reason for her discontent seemed to require a deep introspection that Maki didn't quite feel up to performing, and since it didn't really matter all that much, it was going to have to remain a mystery. It wasn't like anyone was actively trying to get her to change her mind about children or anything, so it wasn't a problem that needed solving so much as a personality quirk that her friends had to learn to understand.

Luckily, the friends with the most children were also the most understanding, so after the weekly picture was taken and birthday cake was shared, Kaede understood completely when Maki informed her she was socially drained and ready to go back home and decompress. She still felt a little bad about not getting Kaede anything tangible for her birthday, but as Kaito told her on the car ride home, she got what she wanted most, and all that mattered was that the Momotas were there to help facilitate that. Knowing that her best friend was willing to put aside her aversion to children the way she had probably made Kaede feel like the luckiest girl in the world.

If Maki could borrow even a little bit of that luck over the couple months, she would take it in a heartbeat, and even faster if she knew what was on the horizon for her and her husband.

_seven_.

The shift from usual to unusual started on Kaito's birthday that year. Contrary to previous years, Kaito had no plans or ideas as to what he wanted his wife to do for him, and considering the early parts of the year tended to be a financial strain anyway due to the ever-increasing amount of birthdays, they decided to settle on a quiet day spent at home with only each other for company. Lounging around the house with no pressing matters on her back or obligations to attend to was a relief that Maki didn't have the leisure to enjoy often. Her pajamas hung loose off her body as all pajamas should, and the early spring morning was nice enough that she wouldn't need to leave that clothing all day.

As she walked from the bathroom back to the living room, she passed something that caught her eye. Sitting in the room used for storing miscellaneous trinkets and knick-knacks was the model rocket Maki had given Kaito for Christmas; still sitting pristine in its packaging. "Kaito," she called, changing course for the junk room.

She crouched next to the box and read the side while she waited for Kaito to respond to her. She called to him again and, after a moment, he appeared in the doorway, hand resting idly on the frame. "What d'ya need in here, Maki Roll?"

To answer his question, she poked at the tall box as though it was liable to explode. "You still haven't built my Christmas present?" She meant it as an innocent question, but she must have used the wrong tone, because Kaito flinched back slightly.

"I, uh, didn't know if I should build it," he explained, hand scratching the back of his neck. "Isn't that what collectors do with their models? Y'know, keep it in the box all nice and pristine and stuff?"

"Fuck that," Maki said, coming to her feet again. "I bought you a three-foot-tall rocket and we're going to make sure every inch is on full display."

Kaito snorted, nearly doubling over as if Maki's words hit him harder than a car. "Phrasing, Maki Roll."

Usually, being called out on poor wording would have flustered her, but Maki was so fixated on building this model rocket that she ignored him completely and started opening the box. The rest of the day was spent in that room building the rocket, and by the time it was done, the sun was disappearing over the horizon, putting an end to Kaito's chill birthday.

The couple stood up and took in their creation. Maki usually didn't care about this kind of thing, but she nodded at it proudly. Kaito, meanwhile, had to stifle a laugh. "What's so funny?" she asked.

"Oh, it's nothing," he said. "It's just that...the rocket's almost as tall as you are, Maki Roll!"

If looks could kill, the glare Maki gave would have dropped Kaito on the spot. She turned to him and grabbed his shirt collar tight before smoothly pinning him to the wall as only a world-class assassin could. "I could be _shorter_ than that stupid thing and I'd still be able to kick your ass."

Dealing with years of this kind of violence had mostly de-sensitized Kaito to being handled like that, so he merely laughed. "Trust me, I know. Now can you let me go?"

Maki sized up the birthday boy, taking a tense moment before she said, "No." Kaito opened his mouth to protest, but was met with the forceful impact of her lips on his. The passionate, heated kiss ended when Maki pulled away, suddenly short on breath and a whole new look in her eyes. "I'm going to fuck you senseless first."

Kaito let out a low chuckle before leaning in closer (or at least, doing the best he could in his position). "Happy birthday to me..."

Turned out, Maki was going to be leaving those clothes after all, but considering the reason, she wasn't going to complain; that was mostly because her mouth was too busy saying and doing other things.

Things that poor, newly constructed model rocket wasn't going to forget anytime soon.

_eight_.

The shenanigans on Kaito's birthday were quickly forgotten, the only reminder that they did anything that day being the rocket. A month later, they went from staying in on a day they would typically go out to Kaito trying to drag Maki out of the house on a day she would have rather spent at home. "I really don't understand why you want to go to Aika's birthday party," Maki said. "Isn't it a little weird for a full-grown man to show up at a four-year old's birthday?"

Kaito sat up in bed next to her, letting the blankets fall off his broad chest. "Aw, come on, Maki Roll. She's Shuichi and Kaede's kid, of course we're allowed to be there. Besides, she loves us to death and would be happy to see us!" When his explanation was met with rolled eyes and silence, he clapped a hand on her thigh. "If we go, I'll make it worth your while, I promise."

"You can't use sex to get your way on everything," Maki said flatly, noticing how his hand edged up her leg as he spoke. In direct contrast to her words, the further up her thigh his hand went, the more shivers shot up her spine. "What if I said I wasn't going to sleep with you unless we didn't go?"

Kaito halted his hand's advance and chuckled. "Fair point, I guess. But really now, let's do it for Kaede. I'm sure she wants to give her girl the best birthday she can, and us bein' there would only make it better."

Maki didn't want to admit it, but that was the strongest case he'd made yet. Helping make Kaede happy when she was about to be saddled with a third child to take care of would only help her out. Beyond that, the idea of Kaede owing her one was an appealing thought. Thus, it was decided, Maki was going to force herself to go to Aika's birthday party.

But not before straddling Kaito and making him follow through on his promise.

After getting cleaned up and ready, the two made their way to the Saihara residence. As usual, Kaito barged in without any warning beyond loudly declaring he'd arrived, and a scene very similar to the one that unfolded on Kaede's birthday played out. The girls of the house were unimpressed until Maki made her presence known, which drove them nuts. Maki looked around the living room noting the board dedicated to the next arrival surrounded by black and dark blue decorations. Littered around the walls were small, elegant white birds depicted in flight.

The birthday girl, outfitted in a tiny white tutu screamed happily and bolted to Maki's legs, hugging her tight. "Maki mole!" she shrieked.

"Aw, she's picked up my nickname for her," Kaito cooed. "Kinda."

The sound of the name only Kaito was allowed to call her made Maki's eye twitch, and the fact that it was so messed up didn't help either. She crouched down to Aika's level and gave her a small wave. "Happy birthday, kid."

Aika screamed and hugged Maki again, squeezing her as tight as her tiny little arms could manage. After Kaede prompted her to, Aika said, "Thank you, Maki mole."

Maki looked up to try and spark conversation with Kaede or Shuichi, but their faces were glowing with how adorable they thought the scene was, so Maki was stuck in this exchange for the time being. "Have you gotten everything you wanted for your birthday?" She asked, pushing Aika off her.

Aika nodded quickly. "Yeah!"

That was when Kaede decided it was time to chime in. "She really wanted to see you today, Maki."

Maki raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Why…?"

Before Aika could answer, Kochou barged into the conversation in much the same way a car would barrel through a glass storefront. She was clearly still a question or two behind the conversation, judging by the way she said, "I got sissy this!" She bent down and grabbed a large, thick stick. "It's a stick!"

Maki blinked once or twice at the present in the younger sister's chubby hands. "Right."

Kaito asked the question Maki had on her mind, but was too busy to pose. "What's with the décor? It's awfully dark and blue for a little girl. Wouldn't she want pink and rainbows and stuff?"

Possibly since it was Kaito asking, Kaede rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "That's expectedly old-fashioned of you to ask, Kaito, but for your information, the theme for this party is Swan Lake."

Aika hopped in place and tugged on her tutu. "I'm Swan Lake!"

Maki nodded along; she was trying to pretend she was interested in what Aika was saying, and to the girl, it was working wonders. "How much of Swan Lake does she understand?" She asked no one in particular.

"She understands that she likes the music," Shuichi explained.

Kaede nodded just as quickly as Aika had earlier. "And that's all that matters! I didn't know the intricacies of Der Flohwalzer when I was little, but I understood that I liked it and that's how I got started on the path that put me where I am today."

Kaito put his hands on his hips and pursed his lips in thought. "I don't know how intricate that song is, but I don't know enough about it to argue."

The emotion left Kaede's face and she responded with a deadpan, "Good. You would lose."

"Maki mole, come look!" Aika had officially started ignoring the other adults and tugged on Maki's sleeve to show her the amazing presents she'd gotten. Kochou was hot on their heels, so Maki was stuck with two small children while her friends got to enjoy time with her husband. It wasn't the worst outcome for the day, but it still wasn't ideal.

As it turned out, Maki and Kaito were the only guests, so the surprise visit was appreciated even more by everyone involved. It also meant they were stuck there until Aika wore herself out, which ate up a vast majority of the day. Finally, though, the sun was setting and the soft, ebbing rays of light shining through the windows illuminated the scene of Aika and Kochou, sound asleep and slumped against each other in the big armchair. It was sickeningly adorable, though to Maki it was mostly sickening. Kaede took several pictures of the girls, and after posting them on social media, she turned to Kaito and Maki with a wide smile. "Thank you for coming over today," she said quietly. "You really made Aika's day that much more special."

"It's the least we could do for my sidekick and his family." Kaito's idea of whispering was much louder than everyone else's, but he didn't seem to be waking anyone up, so nobody minded all that much.

"Still, we're glad you made it." Now it was Shuichi's turn to thank them. "I know how you feel, Maki, but the girls really do love to see you. Thank you for putting that aside for today."

"I don't mean to overstep my bounds, but I would love it if you could do that more often for the other two," Kaede said, resting both hands on her swollen stomach.

Maki didn't have a good response to that, so she didn't bother to try. The conversation slowly died down from there, and once it was over, the couples parted ways once more. "So we'll be coming over for Kochou's birthday too, right?" Kaito asked on the ride home.

Maki sighed. "If it makes Kaede happy..."

Kaito pumped a fist in the air, making sure to keep his other hand on the wheel like a somewhat responsible driver. "Alright! You're gonna make all three Kaedes happy. And if they're happy, so are Shuichi and mini Shuichi."

Maki smiled and looked out the window. "Turn the car around so I can go tell her you said that."

Kaito's eyes went wide. "I'd rather live to see mini Shuichi, thanks."

"You're still doing it."

_nine_.

As much as she didn't intend to make an empty promise, Maki just couldn't help that her only friend on the night of Kochou's birthday was an empty house and the toilet bowl. After what felt like an eternity of retching on her knees like she was offering her guts to some sort of porcelain god, she was brought back to reality when the front door opened and Kaito called into the quickly darkening house. She heard some heavy footsteps, the sound of light switches flipping to illuminate the place a little, and finally the door to the bathroom slowly opening. "You feeling better, Maki Roll?" he asked, peeking his head in.

"A little bit." It wasn't a total lie that Maki said in a hoarse voice. Her stomach was still doing various types of flips and tricks, but she didn't feel nauseous from the mere thought of eating anymore. That didn't mean she was going to try it, but progress was progress. "How was the party?" she asked.

She thought it would be against Kaito's better judgment to plop down next to the sick lady, but as he started telling her about the party, he dropped to a crisscross sitting position right next to her. "It was great! I mean, for the most part. Kochou was a little sad not to see ya, but when I explained she didn't want you vomiting all over her tutu, she understood."

"What was her theme?" Maki asked.

"Swan Lake again," Kaito said. "I guess copying each other is a sibling thing. The only thing different was that Kochou wanted a bright pink dress instead of a white one. Kaede said it wasn't exactly accurate to Swan Lake, but it's the thought that counts."

Maki couldn't help but chuckle. "Yeah. The kids at the orphanage were kind of like that, too."

Kaito danced around that subject again, for some reason changing the subject almost without missing a beat. "Anyway, you wouldn't have liked it, because this time they had actual guests, which I guess made up for you not being here."

"Like who?" It may have been the haze of sickness, but Maki couldn't imagine who else would have been there.

Kaito seemed to grimace at the thought. "Tenko, Himiko and Toumi."

"Ah," Maki said, nodding. "So I would have had to deal with three kids instead of two. Maybe this stomach thing was the world's way of saving me from that."

"You sure you okay?" Kaito asked. "Your face is looking a little pale."

"I'm fine," Maki told him. "My stomach feels like it's pole dancing on my spine, but I'm fine."

Kaito seemed slightly confused by the imagery presented to him. "Anyway, I wasn't super into it either, to be honest with ya. Himiko's cool and Toumi's cute and all, but Tenko is a real handful. She'd barely even let me get close to the kiddos." Maki nodded along, silently showing she was listening. Suddenly, Kaito's posture stiffened like he was getting upset. "She treats me an' Shuichi like we're some sorta criminals! The only reason Shuichi was allowed in the same room as the kids without getting a dirty look is because two of them were his."

"That's Tenko for you," Maki said, turning her attention back to the toilet bowl. "God forbid someone have a dick."

"Right?" Kaito shot to his feet like he was ready to fight. "It rubs me the wrong way. When have I ever hurt anyone?"

…

"On purpose?"

Maki smiled and shook her head. "Calm down, Kaito. You don't want to prove her right."

"Yeah, yeah," Kaito said, turning his back to her. "Hey, d'ya want anything to eat? I had cake but that ain't exactly dinner."

"I'd rather not risk having to spend another hour in here," Maki grumbled. Kaito left without another word, leaving the bathroom door slightly open. "Thank you anyway," she called after him, hoping her voice would reach far enough for him to hear. Now that she wasn't throwing up uncontrollably, she weakly got herself to a stand and wobbled over to their bedroom. Once she was comfortable in bed, she started checking her phone. The first thing she saw was Kaede's post wishing her younger daughter a happy third birthday. The picture seemed to be a group shot from the party, with two families standing near each other and three kids at their feet. One could tell just by glancing at the still photo that the kids were struggling to keep themselves under control, their eyes wide and long hair tousled like they'd been playing.

Kaito, however, didn't seem to be in the picture. Kaede had left a note on the bottom of the wall of text that he was there too, but got stuck with camera duty. A peek at Tenko's smug face told Maki all she needed to know about how that set-up ended up coming about. Maki had the thought that maybe her presence would have stopped that from happening, but then she wondered how that argument didn't evolve into full-blown fisticuffs. She hadn't seen Tenko much since they'd adopted Toumi, but she thought that maybe the kid had finally made her slightly less physically violent. Maybe.

The thought of Toumi, Aika and Kochou lead her down a completely different train of thought. One that was best summed up when Kaito walked into the bedroom, rubbing his stomach contentedly. Before she could think to stop herself, she blurted out, "Would you feel better if we had a child?"

She covered her mouth, surprised she'd even say such a thing, and Kaito was so caught off guard that his breath caught in his throat and he nearly doubled over from choking on it. "E-excuse me?" He wheezed once he'd sort of collected himself.

Maki's face was beet red, and she was almost scared to open her mouth, but she did anyway. "Well, you said Tenko only treated Shuichi half decent because he's a parent, so maybe she would finally respect you if you were a parent of your own kid."

The room was dead silent, and Kaito blinked slowly a few times, trying to process what had been said. "There's...a lot to unpack there," he said, moving to Maki's side in bed. "First of all, I don't think having a kid so one person will respect me is the most responsible thing to do."

"Right," Maki agreed. "It would be a lot to go through just for creating the illusion of being mature."

"Which I am, by the way," Kaito said quickly. "Anyway, aside from that, I'm pretty sure part of it is the fact that Aika and Kochou are both girls. When Kaede tried to talk about their mini Shuichi, she like, totally checked out mentally. So even if we did do that, if it were a boy then Tenko would _not_ give a shit."

Maki nodded along. "You're right. Sorry I brought it up. I don't know what came over me."

"Don't worry about it," Kaito said, wrapping his arm around her shoulder. The room was silent for another moment, then he turned to her with a concerned look on his face. "Do..._you_ want a kid?"

Maki couldn't have answered faster. "Hell no. I just thought I'd offer. It would make you happy, right?"

Kaito turned his gaze to the ceiling, looking at nothing in particular. "I mean, I guess I would like to have a kid someday, but I'm not gonna ask you to compromise on your beliefs just for my sake, y'know? I think us both bein' happy is more important than you sufferin' through all that pregnancy stuff for a kid you won't even like."

"I'm glad you agree," Maki said. When Kaito gave a small chuckle, she put on a serious face. "No, really. It means a lot to me that you feel that way too. Now I don't feel as bad for keeping you from having children." As she spoke, she huddled into her husband's frame, pulling herself closer to him until the end of her sentence was said with her face practically nuzzled into his chest.

"Don't feel bad," Kaito assured her, running his hand through her hair. "All I need to be happy for the rest of my life is you. I don't need anything or anyone else. Just you." He kissed the top of her head and the couple eventually fell asleep in that position. Maki wasn't usually such a cuddly person, but Kaito wasn't one to complain.

_ten_.

Two days after Kochou's birthday, it was time for Maki to finally receive her own birthday present.

She woke up that morning and her eyes darted to the tickets that Kaito hung up on the wall to make sure he wouldn't forget. Finally, the date printed on the tickets had come, and now it was only a matter of time until Maki was watching her favorite band perform live, which wasn't something she'd ever thought she would get to see.

Unfortunately, the stomach bug she had caught hadn't completely gone away yet, so her appetite was still suffering and she still had a lingering sense of not functioning at a hundred percent. This was her birthday present, though, and she wasn't going to let being sickly stop her from enjoying herself. However, once lunch rolled around, she was still not out of bed, which was normal for Kaito, but not for her. "You feeling okay, Maki Roll?" Kaito asked.

"I'm still a little under the weather," Maki said. "It's no big deal."

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

Maki put some thought into it and finally flipped herself so she was laying on her stomach. "Can you get my back?"

"Oh, uh, sure." Kaito moved to sitting above her, placing his hands gently on her back. "I'm not sure how this'll help with stomachaches but I'm willing to try anything."

"My back's sore too, smart one," Maki snapped. "I can feel more than one pain at once, you know." Kaito didn't respond, instead pressing his fingers into her flesh. "Down," she said, sighing at the feeling. "It's my lower back that hurts." He pressed down on the area she described and an explosion of relief pulsed throughout her body. She sighed happily and rested her head on the pillow. She appreciated that he was actually remaining silent for this. It felt like his fingers were her own personal massage roombas, going wherever she directed without protest or smart remark. The silence meant it wasn't the typical back massage, but if he kept his mouth shut, perhaps it would be one with a happy ending…

"A-are you moaning like that because I've got the right spot?" Kaito asked, snapping Maki back to the present.

Maki didn't want to admit that she'd started fantasizing about the raunchy paths his hands could go down. "Uh, yes. Sorry."

"It's alright." Kaito averted his gaze, even though Maki couldn't see his reddening face. "I was just confused. I didn't think you'd be interested in that kinda thing with your stomach feeling the way it does."

Maki bit back a low groan. "Honestly? I'm very interested in 'that kinda thing,' but you're right. Keep it in your pants this time, Romeo."

The couple narrowly avoided dropping everything to make sweet love—again—and finally got their day started with a nice lunch. Thankfully, Maki was able to keep it down, and from there it was time to get ready for the concert. Maki put on her capris and one of the several T-shirts she owned with the bands name scrawled across the chest.

She was thankful she got dressed before Kaito when he tiled his head at her in confusion. "I thought people were supposed to dress kinda nice for concerts," he said.

"Dumbass, this isn't one of Kaede's concerts," Maki said. "Besides, think about what kind of genre this band is. I don't think they'll care so much."

"Right," Kaito said, mentally rethinking his entire outfit. Finally, he settled on a similarly colored shirt and shorts before ushering Maki out of the house so they could get there in time. On the drive to the venue, he struck up a conversation. "Say, speaking of Kaede, when do you think the baby shower is?"

"Are you serious?" Maki asked, to which Kaito nodded. "Don't you remember? They only had a baby shower for Aika."

"Why's that, do you think?" he asked, completely oblivious to how this kind of thing worked.

"Most couples only have one baby shower," Maki explained. "Most smart couples, anyway. Those events are for getting expensive gifts like cribs and shit. And since the expensive stuff tends to be more permanent, they don't need to get a new one with every parasite they pump out."

Kaito couldn't help but bark a laugh at Maki's wording. "Right. Well, let's stop thinkin' about them and have some fun, yeah?"

"Finally," Maki said, settling into her seat.

It didn't take long at all for Kaito to find a new subject. "Hey, this is a first for both of us, isn't it?" Maki nodded quietly and he grinned proudly. "Well, now it's gonna be twice as fun!"

Maki smiled and remained silent. She wasn't ecstatic about the idea of being in such a big crowd, but she was willing to keep an open mind about it. She could also feel a faint echo of the stomach pain in her gut, but she was going to muscle through it and have fun if it killed her.

She had no idea that she'd wish it had killed her the next day, but that's a story best saved for later.

The venue for the concert was a place neither of the concert virgins had ever been before. It was a large, mostly outdoor area that was clearly made with such large concerts in mind, and it was spacious enough that Maki had confidence that she wouldn't feel too cramped when everyone was filed in.

The sun started setting and with the cool, late spring evening came the main attraction that brought them there that night. The band was always Maki's favorite, but being able to watch them perform their greatest hits in person was a special experience, and contrary to her expectations, the sounds of everyone around her singing along was just as fun. She didn't quite have the confidence to sing along out loud herself, despite knowing that she wouldn't be heard over the roar, but she filed the knowledge that she was allowed to do that in the back of her mind so maybe she could use it in the future.

Yes, she was already planning to go to another concert.

About halfway through, the band left the stage for a brief intermission, getting ready for the next part of their act, but in the calm (by comparison) din, Maki could feel her stomach start to rumble again. "You okay, Maki Roll?" Kaito asked, catching on to her paling face so quickly it almost annoyed her.

Maki nodded, but for some reason her nods were coming incredibly slowly. "I'm...fine," she said. Naturally, Kaito didn't believe her in the slightest, but before he could press her further, the band took the stage again. For the second half of the show, Maki was in her seat, watching the people standing around her having a blast. When she felt like this, the only thing to do would be to sit back and relax with her eyes closed, but the sheer volume of the concert made relaxing completely impossible. Kaito tried to sit next to her in solidarity, but she forced him back to his feet, determined to make sure _someone_ was having a good time, at least.

Each beat of every song made her head throb, and her stomach once again felt like it was trying desperately to escape by any means necessary; she was just determined to make sure that route didn't involve her mouth.

The concert seemed much longer when she stopped enjoying it, and it felt like it had dragged on for days when the band finally made their final exit from the stage. On their way out to the car, Kaito was giddy from the experience. "That was awesome!" he cheered.

"Yeah, it was fine," Maki said, gripping her stomach. "I'm sure I would have enjoyed it more if I didn't feel like death the whole second half."

"Yeah, speaking of that, how are you feeling?" Kaito asked.

"I think I need to go to a doctor," Maki said, visibly ashamed that she was saying that. "I hate having to do that, but this hasn't gone away longer than a few hours for four days."

"Wow, I didn't think I'd ever see you admit you need medical help," Kaito said, pulling car keys out of his pocket now that the car was visible.

"I don't like hospitals or doctor's offices," Maki explained quickly. "But I'd rather deal with that than suffer through this any longer."

"Fair enough," Kaito said, opening the driver's side door. "Now get in and let's go home."

One long sleepless night later, Maki and Kaito rolled up to the urgent care center near their house. "You didn't need to come with me, I could have driven myself," Maki insisted as they got out of the car.

"And what would you have done if they had given you some kinda drowsy medicine? Sorry Maki Roll, we're in this together."

Maki rolled her eyes and lead the way into the building. Luckily, it was a slow day, so the couple weren't waiting too long before a nurse took them back. "You don't have to come with me," Maki said, holding a hand out to tell Kaito to stay where he was.

His act of defiance was grabbing her hand and using it to pull himself to a stand. "And who's gonna stop me?" He smirked at her, and she briefly had the thought of punching his teeth out. The only thing that saved him was the fact that starting a scene in public would have been counterproductive. Instead, she groaned and followed the nurse back, resigned to not caring whether he followed her or not.

Maki told the nurse the details of her stomach problem and got a barrage of invasive and personal questions in response, which was one of the problems she had with places like this. Among the questions was a classic. "Is there any chance you're pregnant?"

"No," Maki said quickly, so repulsed by the question that she nearly rocketed into a sitting position from the medical bed she'd been laid down on.

"When was your last period?"

Maki rolled her eyes. "I don't know. My birth control stops it."

The nurse put a pen to her mouth and hummed. "I see. Can you tell me where it hurts?"

Maki nodded and moved her hands down to a spot just below her ribcage, and the nurse wasted no time. She slipped on some gloves and lifted Maki's shirt (an action which made the trained assassin have to resist the urge to kill) before touching and pressing down on the area in question. "Why are you doing this?" Maki asked. "I'm sure it's a stomach bug or something, how would pressing on it help?"

"Maybe you should let the doc do her thing, yeah?" Kaito said, earning a glare in response.

The nurse didn't respond, instead moving her hands and letting Maki's shirt fall again. "It could just be a virus or infection, but there is the chance of something more serious, so in order to be absolutely sure, we're going to perform an ultrasound. Is that alright?"

"I wasn't aware there were other uses for that kind of thing," Maki said, her heart skipping a beat at the term.

The nurse nodded. "Oh yeah, we use it for a lot more than you probably realize. Now let's get started."

While the nurse was setting up the ultrasound, Kaito was having trouble keeping his giggles to himself. "What's so funny, dumbass?" Maki snapped, seeing his stupid grin.

He shook his head, laughing again. "Oh, nothing. It's just that, y'know, we just talked about this kinda thing and now you're getting ultrasound...ed like you're some kinda pregnant lady." As he spoke, the monitor the nurse was using flickered to life and she turned it so only she could see it.

"Stow it," Maki said. "You just heard her explain it."

Kaito gave another chuckle and scratched at the back of his head. "Yeah, but isn't it kinda funny? Getting your stomach looked at instead of like, your heart or whatever else it is ultrasounds can look at?"

"Go ahead, keep rattling on," Maki said, looking past him to the wall. "The more you go, the longer it'll be until the next time we—"

"Holy shit. Excuse my unprofessional language, but you guys might want to have a look at this."


	3. Chapter 3

_eleven_.

The front door swung open violently enough to kill someone and Maki stormed in after it, the wrath of Hell in her eyes. "I can't fucking believe this," she roared, her words echoing down the halls of the house that suddenly felt much smaller.

Kaito stepped inside after her, making sure the door didn't damage the wall when it flew open. "Maki Roll..."

Maki's long hair spiraled around her like a vortex of hate when she spun on her heels to face Kaito and jabbed a finger in his direction. "Don't. Talk to me." She turned back around and marched into the kitchen, a frenetic air around her.

Seconds later, Kaito heard the sound of a cabinet opening in the kitchen. His eyes went wide and he bolted in after her, finding Maki frantically trying to pry open a rum bottle as though her life depended on it. "Maki Roll!" he yelled, lunging for the alcohol.

The second he laid his fingers on it, Maki screeched, "Don't touch me!" It was an almost inhuman noise, and the fact that it was coming from Maki's mouth would have given Kaito pause if it weren't for the context.

She tried to yank the bottle out of Kaito's reach, but he held it firmly between them, put his hand on the cap, and looked into Maki's eyes with a deadly serious expression. "Maki Momota, you listen to me." His voice was stern, unlike anything she'd ever heard before, and the sound of it rattled Maki almost as much as the sudden news had. "You don't want to do this."

"Yes I do." Maki tried to put on an intimidating voice, but it came out as a scared little girl's whispers. "I'm going to drink every drop of alcohol in this fucking house."

"Maki," Kaito repeated. "It's too far along. If you do that now, you'll get arrested."

Maki started hyperventilating, eyes wide and bloodshot. She backed off, hands in the air, but Kaito's grip on the bottle wasn't enough to keep it up, so it fell to the ground and shattered, straight rum exploding across the linoleum floor. The sound startled Maki and she screamed, watching her shoes get covered in the liquid. She stuttered out an apology, but never got farther than the letter I before Kaito took action. He fluidly stepped over the glass and lifted her bridal style, making sure he had a firm grip on her before walking her out of the kitchen. "Kaito..."

"It's okay," he said, his voice much softer and reassuring than before. "I'll clean it up. Go take your shoes off and relax."

Maki tried to protest, but the second the stench of so much rum hit her nose, she was practically washed away by a wave of nausea. Between that and the adrenaline wearing off, Maki wasn't even out of Kaito's arms before she had fainted.

When she came to, she was tucked into bed. Her pajamas were on and her feet were bare and cool, not even a trace of alcohol remaining. She was extremely comfortable physically, but the fact that she woke up at all made her wish she had slipped on the rum and impaled her heart on a sharp shard of glass. On the other side of the wall, she could hear the toilet flushing, Kaito emerging into the room shortly after. When she saw him, she sat up and spoke the first thing that came to mind. "We have to tell Kaede and Shuichi."

Kaito held up a hand to try to calm her. "I've already texted them. They're on the way."

Somehow that thought didn't comfort Maki. "And what about—"

"They called in a babysitter for Aika and Kochou. It'll just be the four of us."

Maki nodded, starting to zone out. "Right." She got to her feet and slowly made her way to the living room where the news would have to be delivered, Kaito on her heels to make sure she wasn't about to faint again. She took a seat on the couch and took a deep breath. "Did you clean the floor?"

Kaito nodded. "Yup. After I made sure none of it was left on your feet, I went and cleaned it all up." He held up his hands to show off a variety of small cuts on his palms. "I did get got a couple a' times by the glass, though."

"I'm sorry," Maki whined, looking away as quick as she could.

"Don't be," Kaito said.

"Why not?"

Kaito opened his mouth to give a reason, but the doorbell rang before he could say anything. "Forget it. Just don't be sorry, okay? I'm gonna let 'em in." He rushed to the door and pulled it open, getting a greeting from Shuichi and a nod from Kaede. "Hey, thanks for comin' on such short notice, guys."

"Anything for you guys," Shuichi said, closing the door gingerly behind him.

Kaede nodded agreement. "Even if it means taking some time away from my babies," she said, resting her hands on her stomach. She was wearing an obnoxiously bright pink shirt that had some kind of dumb phrase about swallowing watermelon seeds on it, but Maki was more focused on how, between her breasts and swollen stomach, she looked a little bit like a human version of the letter B when looked at from the side. She had already retained some weight from her first two children, but now it was impossible to mistake her as anything but very pregnant. It was astounding how she still managed to look beautiful even while carrying so much extra weight and wearing a stupid T-shirt. Maki's hand rested on her own stomach, unable to picture herself that large, but she shook herself out of her thought process and removed her hand before either Saihara could see her.

"So what do you need to talk to us about?" Shuichi asked.

Kaito felt his face heat up and he forced a chuckle. "Uh, well, something's happened, and I'm not sure how to tell ya."

Maki heaved a deep sigh and spat out her way of revealing the news. "How much extra baby stuff do you have that you don't need?"

Kaede and Shuichi gasped.

"That's one way to do it," Kaito said with a sigh.

"Is there a reason you're asking?" Kaede asked, eyes lighting up. "Because I can get you so much stuff!"

Shuichi's eyes were wide with a different emotion, and he locked eyes with Maki. "Maki, you're not..."

Maki nodded slowly. "There's more."

"Wha..."

Kaede clapped her hands together and interrupted almost comically. "I'll get ahold of Himiko and Tenko and see if they can get their, ahem, contact to make you custom shirts! We'll just have to come up with something as clever as Saihara Squad!"

Maki was unimpressed. "Kaede."

"Momota...Clan? No, it's gotta have alliteration."

Kaito tried his hand at reigning in the conversation. "Kaede..."

"Momota Mob? No, sounds too mafia."

Shuichi was catching on to something as well. "Kaede."

"Momota Mansion! Oh, Maki, I'm so excited for you! Our kids can be friends, and it won't matter that he's a few months older than yours, they'll still be the best of friends, I can already—"

Maki shot to her feet and snapped, "It's due in three weeks."

Kaede's face dropped from excited to confused. "Uh, no? My baby boy is due in five weeks, silly."

"Not yours. Ours. It's going to be here in three weeks, tops." The room fell dead silent. Maki continued, spitting each word like it was a well-aimed crossbow bolt. "I've been pregnant since late last year, and the doctor said the damn thing would be due in the next month or so, but she couldn't figure out an exact date. This whole time, we had no idea."

Shuichi looked like a deer in the headlights, and he shook his head repeatedly, eyes darting from Maki's face to her stomach to the rest of her body. "N-no no no," he stuttered, holding his hands up. "That's impossible. How could you be pregnant for so long and not even know? I mean, you're not…"

"I'm not fat?" Maki finished. "It's okay, you can say it."

Kaito put a hand on Shuichi's shoulder and tried his hand at explaining things. "Y'see, our, uh, kid kinda formed closer to Maki Roll's spine, so she didn't grow a bit. It's…uh, pretty much fully formed? I think?"

Shuichi looked like he was the one about to faint now. "No, that's impossible. How can you possibly be pregnant for almost a full term and not catch _any_ of the signs?"

Maki shrugged apathetically. "Your guess is as good as mine, detective."

Hearing the line of work he was so good at thrown back at him like a weapon seemed to physically take the air from Shuichi's chest. He reached up and placed his hand on his forehead, growing paler and more frantic by the second. "I...I had no idea. How could _I _miss so many clues? This isn't possible!"

Maki decided to let Shuichi have his mental break in peace and instead turned to see how Kaede was handling the news. What she saw was a very unamused pregnant woman, arms crossed and lips pursed into a pout. "This isn't funny, Maki," she said quietly.

"I agree," Maki said, crossing her own arms. "I don't think it's funny in the slightest. Do you think I asked for this?"

"You know, I don't know what to think, Maki," Kaede snapped, turning to her distressed husband. "Part of me thinks that you're just making it up to try to steal my spotlight, if I'm being honest."

Maki's jaw dropped, and so did Kaito's (Shuichi wasn't paying attention). "Do you want to run that one by me again?" Maki asked, hands balling into fists at her side.

Kaede was clearly intimidated by Maki's murderous aura, but instead of backing down, she just shook her hair out of her face and huffed. "You heard me," was her simple response.

Maki's mind swirled with vulgar, insulting things she could say, but instead, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The room fell quiet, aside from Shuichi's heavy breathing, but after a few minutes, Maki said, "Fine. If you honestly want to be that self-centered, then you can go. We'll get help for our baby from someone else." She paused to growl, fighting back tears. "I hate that I even have to say that, and the fact that you don't believe me and would rather make it about yourself only makes it hurt worse. Get out of my house."

Kaede and Shuichi left without another word.

_twelve_.

Now that Maki knew about the incredibly bizarre situation she'd stumbled into, there was a month at best before her life was meant to change forever, and now she started to take notice of the signs that had flown under her radar in the past. Her aching joints, bigger appetite and lower energy had transformed from innocuous inconveniences into the symptoms of the one thing she swore would never happen to her; and she couldn't tell if they were actually getting worse or if she just felt them worse now that she knew that. Her stomach continued to stay the way it always had been, which only made things that much more unbearable. Not even the best detective she knew of could look at her and tell she was pregnant.

Not that it mattered what he could do, considering he and his family weren't talking to her.

But the time to feel sorry for herself and dread the oncoming life changes was short. Kaito and Maki had less than a month to prepare for the arrival of their newly discovered bundle of...something, and the clock wasn't going to pause for her mental breakdown. This situation was plenty bizarre, but stopping time wasn't going to get involved, no matter how much they wanted it. As such, the frantic planning began in earnest. A week was spent feverishly cleaning the house (Kaito would take on tasks that he deemed not safe for a pregnant woman to perform), and snap decisions had to be made regarding what to keep around the house. The extra room that the Saturn V rocket was currently sitting in was the only option for the child's room, and all of the junk and clutter had to either be thrown away or relocated somehow. There was a brief moment where Kaito mulled over getting rid of the rocket due to how large it was, but Maki had grown attached to (and spent way too much money on) the damn thing to allow it to be thrown away. It was moved to the corner of their room, and with that out of the way, it was finally started to look like real progress was being made.

The next order of business was filling the room back up, going from stuff they didn't need to stuff they didn't want. Two weeks was awfully short notice for baby shower invites, and they only sent them to the people they thought would have the highest chance of putting aside some time and last-minute funds for their cause. It was a desperate play, but after they explained the situation to those friends, a day was set aside for the event.

Everyone involved getting that particular day off would have been a lot easier if they were American, but against all odds, the Momota household was hosting a get together on the fourth day of July. It was a risky strategy, considering Maki's due date was less of a "date" and more of a "rough estimation" based on the size of the baby, so Kaito was at his wit's end all day, making sure Maki was feeling well and the baby shower wouldn't have to be called off due to sudden labor.

The guest list was astonishingly small, but considering everyone they invited showed up, they didn't have room to complain. The guests made up for their small numbers by getting more gifts, and while that was still not a large number by any stretch of the imagination, it was appreciated nonetheless. "So, first thing's first, I guess," Kaito said once everyone had rounded up and said their greetings. "Thanks for comin' on such short notice, and thanks for these gifts and stuff."

"Get off the stage! I only came for Maki anyway, scumbag."

Maki had no patience for Tenko's antics, glaring daggers at her. "If you came to support me, you'll prove it by not acting like some sort of heckler. Sit down."

Tenko's wife hummed and nodded next to her, eyes half closed. "Yeah, this whole thing's stressful enough for them without you harassing him."

"I have to make him pay for doing that to our poor Maki somehow," Tenko said, earnest belief in her every word. "And I figured my usual route of physical violence wouldn't be appreciated."

"None of it's appreciated," Maki spat. "Now shut up for a minute."

Tenko did as she was told, but Himiko smirked, a glint of mischief in her eyes. "Hey Maki, aren't you glad I cast an anti-weight gain spell on you so you didn't swell up like a balloon? That's not something I've done for anyone else, so you better appreciate it."

Her tolerance for Himiko's bullshit was slightly higher, for some reason, so Maki merely rolled her eyes and muttered a thank you, giving the next guest room to speak. "Right...Well, I didn't cast any magic on you, and I don't exactly have the funds for extravagant gifts, but I hope you like what I did get." He paused to take his hands out of his pockets and shrug dramatically. "Also, keep in mind that my offer to babysit extends to you guys, too."

Kaito smiled, the first genuine smile he'd had since the fight with Kaede and Shuichi. "Thanks, Ryoma. It means a lot to us."

"Anytime," he said, sticking his hands back in his pockets like magnets were pulling them there. "Just don't get all sappy on me, you hear?"

"Loud and clear," Kaito said, giving Ryoma a thumbs up.

The last guest politely cleared her throat, and once she had everyone's attention, she said, "I, too, offer my services, as I've done for everyone before, but considering the modest attendance rate, I also decided to buy a good number of gifts for you as well."

"Thanks, Kirumi," Maki said. "Every little bit helps." It pained Maki to be relying on others like this, but apparently, that was kind of the point of baby showers, so she sucked it up and thanked everyone multiple times over the course of the day. Tenko and Himiko's gifts were almost entirely clothes with dumb phrases on them, and some of them were even space-related to throw Kaito a bone. It wasn't much, but considering the short notice, the couple clearly went as close to all-out as they could. Ryoma's gift was just a large box of diapers that probably wouldn't have even lasted them past the first month, but every penny that was spent on that box was one they didn't have to spend themselves, so the gesture was appreciated.

The small mountain of stuff from Kirumi took up the vast majority of the day. By the time it was done, they had toys, formula, more diapers, enough onesies to last them at least half a year, a carseat, slings, and one of those vests that Kaito declared he would faithfully use to carry the child on his chest every time he went out in public. And yes, he did mean every time.

It was all nice, and Maki knew beggars couldn't be choosers, especially if said beggar was due any day now, but there was still one vital component missing to the room. If Katio noticed it, he wasn't saying anything, and Kirumi had no excuse or explanation, so Maki had resigned herself to having to cough up the money for a crib herself. Just as that thought crossed her mind, the doorbell rang and everyone jumped (except Kirumi, who kept her poker face on).

Kaito looked around the room, muttering something about how he didn't invite anyone else over before moving to the front of the house. As soon as he unlocked the door, it swung open, nearly splattering him on the wall like a cartoon character to reveal a pastel-colored nightmare parade.

Kaede, Shuichi, Aika, Kochou and Toumi marched in, the former four wearing their bright, pastel shirts that read "Saihara Squad" across the chests, and the latter toddling in just to see their moms. Maki was shocked, and once he recovered from the near-death experience with the door, Kaito was as well, but moreso at the giant box in Shuichi's arms. "The Saihara Squad has arrived!" Kaede declared once they reached the center of the room. The one kid that was not theirs immediately waddled to Himiko, arms out happily.

"What…"

Shuichi set the box down and heaved a deep breath. "We have some explaining to do."

Kaede's face turned serious, and she nodded firmly. "Maki, I've been a huge bitch to you."

Maki crossed her arms and pursed her lips. "You have."

"And…I'm sorry. I overreacted to your news." She took a deep breath before continuing, clearly having to resist getting emotional. "You obviously aren't happy with your situation, and instead of being there to support you I got selfish and yelled at you. I'm so sorry." Tears were starting to form in her eyes and she sobbed, "Can you forgive a hormonal pregnant woman who gave into her mood swing?"

Maki kept on a stone face and stared into Kaede's eyes. She could only keep up the charade for so long before the corners of her lips turned up into a small smile. "Depends. What do you have for _this_ hormonal pregnant woman in that box?"

Kaede sniffled and giggled. "Well, Shuichi, I guess it's time to show them."

"If you say so." Shuichi shrugged and motioned to the box, which Kaito kneeled in front of in order to easily tear the wrapping paper off. It didn't take long for him to realize what it was. "Well, hey, there's that crib we were missing!"

Kaede smiled proudly, tilting her head to the side. "I hope that helps make up for things."

Kirumi cleared her throat and took the opportunity to explain. "Forgive me for sharing information you might not have wanted shared, but when you told me the details of what had happened, I decided to reach out and see if we could come to a proper resolution to everything."

Kaede nodded. "Yup, and then we coordinated what we were gonna get!"

Tenko looked to her wife and their child. "And Himiko was _supposed_ to find a different sitter for Toumi, because we were in on it, too."

In the midst of playing with Toumi, Himiko jut out her bottom lip. "I forgot."

Kaede giggled at her flat tone. "It's alright. We didn't mind having an extra body in the car."

Aika and Kochou had been well-behaved at their mother's feet, possibly due to the presence of so many of their usual babysitters, but the excitement of seeing Maki finally got to them. "Maki mole!" Aika said, tugging on her pant leg. "Are you making a brother for us, too?"

Shuichi laughed from his spot, scratching the back of his neck. "No, whatever she has isn't going to be your brother."

Kochou dutifully tugged on Maki's other pant leg and asked, "Why aren't you all big like mommy?"

Kaede and Maki looked at each other, faces flushing a dark red. "Okay, that's enough Maki time for you," Kaede laughed, trying to corral the kiddos.

Kochou immediately detached herself from Maki and left to play with Himiko and Toumi, but Aika stayed behind. "Not yet," she said, stepping back and shaking her head. "I wanna give Maki mole a present too!"

"Oh, you should have told us that beforehand, dear," Shuichi told her, concern in his voice. "Then we could have bought them something and put your name on it."

Aika shook her head again, her thick dark hair going every which way. "Nuh-uh, I already have it!" She grabbed the little backpack she had insisted on wearing to the party and dug through it for a few seconds before proudly producing her gift. "Ta-da! It's Baby Keebo!"

Kaito and Maki exchanged a confused glance and Shuichi's eyes lit up once he remembered the toy. "Oh, that's the toy robot Miu gave us at our baby shower, remember?"

Kaede gasped as the memory hit her as well. "Oh yeah! I'd forgotten all about it!"

"Baby Keebo stayed in my room when I was a baby," Aika said, unaware that its original purpose was as a fancy baby monitor. It was noticeably worn and the adults who used it for that purpose were sure it wouldn't work like that anymore, but the determined little face on the tiny robot had sold Kaito pretty much immediately.

"I love it!" he said, moving from the crib to Maki's side. "He'll be our little guy's best friend!"

Aika's eyes narrowed and she held the robot close to her chest again. "Not for you! Baby Keebo's for Maki Mole and baby Maki Mole." Maki smiled and knelt down in front of Aika. She held out her hands and Aika gingerly put Baby Keebo in her waiting palms. "I'm gonna miss Baby Keebo," she said somewhat somberly. "So please be nice to him, okay? Promise!"

"I promise," Maki said, closing her fingers around the toy. "Thank you, Aika."

Aika grinned so wide her eyes squinted shut. She giggled and ran back to her sister to join the fun with Himiko. Maki brought herself back to a stand, watching the children play quietly and holding the robot tight.

"Weird to think that your kid's going to be part of that group soon, huh?" Shuichi asked, sidling up next to her.

Maki's expression hardened as she mentally cursed him for being able to read her thoughts so proficiently. "Weird. Terrifying. Intimidating."

Kaede joined them and laced her arm through her husband's. "You'll do great, Maki. And if you need any help at all, we'll be there for you every step of the way."

"Hey, don'tcha think I need some encouragement, too?" Kaito asked, clearly a bit sore after getting scolded by a four-year-old. "I'm just as entrenched in this as Maki is!"

"I don't think the degenerate gets any encouragement," Tenko said, butting in on what should have been a sweet moment between friends. "After all, you did this to her."

"How long are you gonna act like this is all my fault, huh?" Kaito demanded, shaking a fist in Tenko's direction.

Tenko's response was lightning fast. "How long are you going to deny that it is? Maki didn't want this, so she had her birth control. It was your fault you got so caught up in the love making and didn't take the time to put on a damn c—"

"Tenko!" Kaede snapped. "Watch what you say around the kids!"

Maki shook her head. "Your own child's here and you start talking about contraception."

Tenko's face flushed. "R-right. I guess I forgot."

"Speaking of which," Shuichi said in a desperate bid to change the subject. "We left before we could ask this last time, but do you have any idea what gender your kid is?"

Kaito shook his head. "The docs told us that the baby's placed so weirdly that they can't make heads or tails of that kinda thing. He's healthy, though, and that's what matters."

"I see you've already decided for yourself what they're going to be," Shuichi said, side-eyeing Tenko for her reaction and hoping he wouldn't have to break up another fight.

"Isn't it weird that you're likely going to have them before we have ours and you don't even know what they are?" Kaede asked. "I don't know how I would handle that."

"I don't think what gender it is really matters here," Maki pointed out.

"That's a good attitude to have, but I'm not sure if you have it for the right reasons," Kaede said.

Maki shrugged, and that was the end of that conversation, as Kochou had interrupted the proceedings by reeling back and accidentally punching Toumi in the midst of their games. The adults scattered to take care of their respective children, leaving Maki, Kaito and Kirumi watching the chaos from afar. "Hey, thanks for doin' that, Kirumi," Kaito said. "I dunno if we could have mentally done all this without my sidekick around."

Kirumi gave Kaito a small smile and a nod. "A good maid can see what needs to be done without being asked."

Ryoma waddled toward the trio and smirked. "And here I was completely unaware of any kind of fight going on between you guys. Guess my communication skills have still got a long ways to go."

From there, the baby shower died down. Tenko and Himiko wished them the best of luck before taking a tuckered out Toumi home, Kirumi had an appointment to attend to, and Ryoma slipped out while no one was paying attention, leaving Kaede, Shuichi and their kids who were on their way out as well. In her final act of making it up to her friend, Kaede hugged her as tight as her swollen belly would allow, which wasn't all that tight, but Maki received the message regardless. "We'll see you guys later," Shuichi said, steering Kochou and Aika toward the door.

Kaede nodded, following behind the procession. "And we better be the first to know when that baby makes their way into the world, you hear?"

Kaito put his hands on his hips and laughed. "Who else would we tell? Miu?"

"Don't even joke about that," Maki said. "Her robot might beam messages back to her or something."

The couples shared a laugh and with that, the house fell silent again. "Well, that was fun," Kaito said. "And now we have the house to ourselves again."

Maki nodded. "Better appreciate it while we can. That's going to change forever very soon." The weight of those words caused her shoulders to slump. She sighed, not giving Kaito the time to respond before turning to the pile of gifts. "Let's get this shit into the room."

It was an easy process, but something about what she'd said caused it to feel like an eternity. Once they were done, she sat in their bed, staring at the rocket she'd got him for Christmas. "You okay, Maki Roll?" Kaito asked.

The temptation to be coy and avoid the topic occurred to her, but she had no idea how much time they would have left to have conversations like these, so she spit it out. "I don't know how ready for this we are."

Kaito nodded solemnly and took a seat next to her. "Yeah, but I don't think anyone's ever truly ready for this kinda thing, you know? Especially on such short notice. Like, damn...it's a bit scary."

Maki nodded, eyes wide. "Terrifying. Intimidating," she said, repeating the sentiment from earlier. Then, it had been said in a lighthearted tone, but now each of those words weighed heavily on her chest.

"But it's going to be okay," Kaito said, confidence in his voice despite the worried look he wore. "Whatever happens, what matters is that we have each other, and we'll stick together through it all."

Maki could feel her eyes starting to well up and attempted to hide the coming tears by throwing her arms around him and latching onto him like a vice. "Right," she said in a shaky voice.

Kaito gasped, surprised at the suddenness of her affection. "M-maki Roll? Do ya need some more motivation?"

Maki shook her head against his chest. "You've said all you need to say, now shut up and hold me."

It was an odd request with a strange forcefulness to it, but it was one that Kaito was more than happy to indulge in. There, in the arms of the man she had fallen for after hearing his promise, Maki found relief. For the first time since they'd learned she was pregnant, she felt like everything would end up okay after all.

_thirteen_.

The week after the baby shower was a test in patience for Maki and nerves for Kaito. Every abnormality was treated as a sign that the child was definitely on the way, and Maki had to constantly explain why she didn't think that was the case. It was annoying, but ultimately, she appreciated that he was so careful with her.

Not that she would ever tell him that.

The boiling point finally came later in the week when Maki started complaining about her back hurting more than usual. As innocent as it seemed, it was the final straw for Kaito, and without listening to reason, he herded her into the car and rushed her to the hospital. When he was explaining that Maki was _definitely_ about to give birth, she rolled her eyes and gave the nurse a look that she hoped would silently explain the situation.

Unfortunately, the nurse couldn't exactly get away with dismissing them outright, so she had a doctor come in.

This newcomer into the situation seemed flabbergasted once he was caught up, jaw clenching as he looked at the couple. "So you have no idea when you got pregnant, when you're due, or even what it is."

Kaito nodded. "That's right."

The doctor pinched the bridge of his nose and set the envelope containing Maki's records on the bedside table. "Alright. Well, the good news is that no, your baby's not on the way. The bad news is, I looked at the ultrasound—who even did that for you?"

Maki shrugged. "Some nurse from urgent care."

"That explains everything."

"Excuse me?" Kaito asked. "Is everything okay?

"Mostly," the doctor said, leaning back in his chair and lacing his fingers together. "As I was saying, I looked at the ultrasound, and your child is positioned wrong." He paused to allow for questions, but then his eyes tracked down to Maki's stomach and he remembered the situation. "Er, in more ways than one. See, when the time comes, the child is meant to be facing down, so they would come down head first. Your child is facing up, which means that if we were to attempt to deliver them normally, we would be taking them out feet first, which isn't fun for anybody, much less you or the baby."

"I don't quite understand why," Kaito mused, crossing his arms and furrowing his brow in thought.

"It's best if you don't think about it too much," the doctor assured him. "Anyway, no, it's not time yet, but perhaps it would be best if we made it time. Does that make sense?"

Maki nodded silently. Her mind went to the last couple of weeks and how the knowledge that she was pregnant had rocked her to her core. On the one hand, she wanted to put off the actual motherhood step for as long as possible, but, as painful as it sounded, perhaps it was best to bite the bullet and get it over with. She looked at Kaito, who assured her that it was her decision and he would stand by her either way. However, it was evident by the look in his eyes that, if asked, he would have launched into one of his bullshit inspirational speeches about taking the plunge headfirst instead of waiting for it to happen—and for something to potentially go wrong. Her decision felt like it was going to shape the rest of her life, and the weight of it was too much for her to respond with an apathetic shrug.

"Fine," she finally said. "Let's do it."

Everything after that was a blur. She blinked and she was alone in the room with Kaito, aware that he was rattling on about how excited he was but not actually bothering to listen. Next time she blinked, he was gone and a nurse was escorting her to the operating room. Then, she was forced to wear nothing but a thin sheet, only serving to humiliate her more. Of course, she couldn't have checked out during the course of stripping down to basically nothing, because the world was intent on her suffering. Next thing she knew, she was getting stuck with needles as the doctors explained the C-section that would bring her baby into the world.

The medications they were pumping through her veins were _supposed_ to dull her senses, numb her almost to the point of knocking her out, and make sure she couldn't feel or hear close to anything during the course of the operation, but the doctors had no idea they were dealing with an assassin who had built up a resistance to most drugs that could be used to knock her out. This led to Maki having to sit through the entire procedure almost fully alert. The one consolation was that she was unable to see what was going on, but she didn't take much solace in that, especially when she heard someone say something about how unusually complicated the procedure was going to be. With nothing done to put her mind at ease and the operating team oblivious to her alertness, Maki was forced to sit through the entire thing. She felt a sensation similar to someone drawing on her with a pen, which she guessed was the surgeon marking where they were going to cut her open.

She could only wish she was so lucky, because the feeling that proved her wrong—a hand parting her skin to _reach inside her_—was the single most uncomfortable thing she'd ever felt in her life. If the drugs hadn't done their job in physically immobilizing her, she would have throttled the surgeon and stomped out of there with her wound still open just so she could strangle her husband too.

In her line of work, she had often thought about the idea of strangers rummaging through her insides, but she had always assumed she'd be dead for the occasion. Instead, she could only wish she was dead, and a small part of her kind of wished the baby they were extracting was dead too. A vision flashed through her head of how disappointed Kaito would be to know she had that thought, and she squashed it down due to shame.

She had no idea how long the operation lasted, or how long she was left alone with her thoughts after it was over. All she was aware of was the sobering fact that her time as a mother was going to start whenever that door opened next, which could have been any second. The moment she had that thought, the door flew open and Kaito ran to her side in a way that reminded her of a herd of elephants. "Hey, Maki Roll!" He said, taking a seat next to her bed. "How're ya feeling?" The energy to make a snarky comment about how she was feeling worse now that he was there was lost on her, so she just shrugged apathetically, which Kaito took as a sign to keep prattling on. "The doc told me everything was good and that I was allowed to come in so we can both be here to meet the kid. Isn't that exciting?"

He got a sigh in response.

"Well anyway, I've told everyone else what's going on, and they'll probably be around later."

This time, she didn't make a sound.

"Aw, come on, Maki Roll. You've gotta be a little excited, right?" Kaito put his hand on hers and gave her a toothy grin. "This is our kid we're talking about!"

Maki spoke for the first time in what felt like days. "Yeah, and they had to rip me open to get it."

Kaito shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. "I'm sure once you see the little rugrat, you'll be all over him, er, it, uh, them. Y'know, that mama bear instinct Kaede likes talking about and all."

The moment to prove Kaito wrong came quick, as before Maki could make a remark, the door creaked open and a doctor Maki recognized from the surgery stepped in, cradling a bundle of fabric in her arms. "You're the lucky couple, right?" she asked. "I'd hate to have brought this to the wrong room after everything."

"Depends," Kaito said. "Is that baby Momota?"

The woman's face lit up and she nodded. "Y-yeah! He's the healthiest C-section baby I've ever seen, in fact. Which is surprising considering the circumstances..."

"Shut up," Maki snapped, causing the nurse to wince.

"I'm sorry!" She squealed, scurrying to Maki and offering the baby to her. "I'll give him to you and get out of your hair, I promise!"

Maki stared at the baby, refusing to budge an inch. His purple eyes were wide, clearly woken up for the first time by the nurse's screech. He started whining, and even though he was staring into Maki's eyes, his eyes scrunched up and he started crying. A loud screech pierced the air and Maki continued staring at him, dumbfounded. Wasn't the sight of a mother supposed to keep babies from crying? After a sufficiently awkward moment during which the doctor's trembling got so intense she seemed ready to drop the baby entirely, Kaito swooped in and grabbed him from her. "I got him. Thanks, Doctor Tsumiki."

The doctor scuttled out and left the couple alone. Kaito turned his attention to the baby boy in his arms, seemingly unphased by the wailing coming from his throat. He held the child close and slowly, the crying tapered off into a whimper and the child went from crying to surveying the area around him. "Wow..." Kaito was awestruck. If only he was speechless too. "Isn't he perfect? And look who was right, huh? So, what are we gonna call this little bundle of joy?"

"He's a bundle of something," Maki grumbled. "But I don't know. You decide."

Kaito was hesitant to take on naming duties, but Maki was done contributing to the conversation, instead opting to stare at the child's big, mostly round head and think about what she just had to sit through to get him out of her. She didn't feel any different, but she knew there was a big, ugly scar just under her pathetic excuse for clothing that would stand out amongst her older, faded marks like a sore thumb.

Finally Kaito spoke up. "Well, how about-"

"Not Kaito Junior," Maki said quickly.

"Damn it."

Another quiet moment passed. The couple stared at their newborn son and he stared back, completely silent. One person was awestruck and immediately in love, while another was significantly less moved, and the third was hours old, so he didn't know what to think.

"How does Momoki sound?"

Mako shrugged. "It works."

It wasn't much longer until their friends descended on the room, reminding Maki of that movie with flying monkeys. Kaede obviously got to hold Momoki first, followed by Shuichi and Himiko. As soon as Tenko learned that the new Momota kid was a boy, she backed off and seemed much less excited, but her reservations still paled in comparison to Maki's. The new mom watched as everyone else passed the baby around, trying to point out every single little thing he did by turning him to face her. None of them seemed to mind that Maki wasn't reacting, and they definitely didn't really care about the invasive surgery she'd experienced. In fact, Kaede seemed to care so little that she shoved the baby back into Maki's arms and had the audacity to take a family picture. Kaito looked worn and tired, Maki looked filled with pure murderous intent, and Momoki had something similar his dad's dumb, goofy smile on.

Maki was assured that someday, she would love the picture, but for now, she was furious. The more everyone tried to get her to love her new son, the less she was going to, mostly out of spite, and they were just going to have to accept that.

_fourteen_.

Momoki Momota was born on July tenth, and every day afterward Kaede grew more desperate for her own child to arrive, swearing up and down that the two of them would be the best friends anyone could ever have. The way she spoke, one would think that the boys being even one month apart in age would prevent that from happening. Maki figured she was just desperate to not be several pounds heavier anymore, but she wasn't going to say that out loud.

Time wore on and Maki was forced to accept that she was a mother now, and all the responsibilities that came with it were hers to contend with as well. Thanks to her years of living in the orphanage, she was an expert at going through the motions of diaper changing, feeding, and taking care of all his necessities, but there was something...missing from it. Something Kaito pointed out one day when he watched her gently rock her son to sleep.

"Y'know Maki Roll, you're like, an expert at that stuff," he said, lazily lolling his head to the side.

"Of course I am," Maki replied quietly. "My cover as a babysitter wasn't just for show."

Kaito pursed his lips and furrowed his brow in thought. "But still, there's somethin' about it that bugs me." He watched Maki lay Momoki down in his crib next to Baby Keebo and escorted her quietly out of the room before continuing. "You're so good at it, but you aren't showing the little guy any love."

"Love," Maki repeated, deadpan.

Kaito flashed a toothy grin. "Yeah! You're his mom, but you're acting like his babysitter. It's almost depressing."

Maki opened her mouth to ask her trademark question, but got interrupted by the doorbell ringing through the house. Both parents jumped, and seconds later, Momoki's cries were drifting into the hall from inside his room. Maki glared in the direction of the door and started towards it. "Go calm him down, please," she said as she rounded the corner. With the assumption that Kaito was going to do as he was told, she opened the door to scold her visitor.

She was expecting someone she knew to be the victim of her ire, but the person standing at the door was completely unfamiliar to her. He was a pale, spindly man who would have been tall if his posture wasn't so horrendous, and his glasses sat so low on his nose, it was doubtful he could even see out of them. "Are you Maki Momota?" He asked, checking the clipboard he had cradled in his bony arms.

"Yes?"

The man gave a name and an occupation, but Maki didn't care much to listen to his introductions, seeing as he was too busy _stepping into her house uninvited_ as he spoke. "I was digging around the patient files at the hospital, as one does, and I found the most peculiar case that I simply must write an article about. Would you mind?"

"A little bit," Maki answered. "Isn't that illegal?"

The man produced a pen like he was drawing a sword from a sheath and put it to the paper immediately. "Now, in all my years as a reporter, I've never seen a case quite like yours. Remind me, how far along were you when you learned you were pregnant?"

Maki stared at the stranger silently. "Um. I don't know. It was three or four weeks before I gave birth."

The man put the pencil to his bottom lip and shook his head. "Tsk. That's not gonna work. Let's put a number to it for the article. Maybe...thirty-five weeks? Thirty-six? Yeah, that's a dramatic number. Anyway, he was farther back than normal, resulting in an essentially completely hidden baby, yes?"

"Sure."

The man cackled gleefully and jumped in place. "Oh, how bizarre! People are going to eat this up! Now, forgive me if I'm being too personal, but how did you fail to take note of that? Surely you noticed your lack of, erm, monthly...processes?"

Maki was too shocked at this man's audacity to get angry about his invasive questions. "I take birth control. Specifically the kind that stops periods."

The man seemed to flinch at the word. God, had he never interacted with a woman before? "Right. Now, did this child's position make it difficult to extract them?" Maki remained silent, but her hand's movement to her scar didn't go unnoticed. "C-section! Brilliant!" He scribbled on his notepad frantically. Maki was slowly getting more indignant, not appreciating her situation being treated like some kind of fictional story. Before she could speak her disdain, he continued. "Now, the file says the baby was just fine. Is he here, perchance?"

"Unfortunately." The response was a knee jerk one, but the second it left her mouth, she knew it was a mistake.

One half of the man's single eyebrow raised and a devilish sneer appeared on his face. "Oh? I smell a different story here. Did you...not want the child?" Maki scowled silently, which was all the answer he needed. "I see! So tell me, and this can be totally off the record if you wish, if you didn't want to have a child, why didn't you just get rid of it? I mean, obviously the...procedure wasn't an option, but you could always dump the kiddo off at some orphanage, you know? I know this great one that does work with a local church, I can't remember the name, but-"

"Enough!" Maki roared. She snatched the clipboard from the man, cracking it in half and ripping all the papers on it in one fluid motion. "I didn't want the little brat but I won't subject him to the same hell I went through, and that's a promise I'll take to my grave. Get out of my house."

The man stuttered and stammered, trying to protest but too scared by Maki's murderous aura to do anything of consequence. By the time he thought of anything to say, Kaito burst into the room, phone in his hand. "Maki Roll, call Ryoma here. Kaede had her baby!"

Maki grabbed her phone from her pocket to see a notification that she missed in her blind rage. More than likely, it was the same message that had prompted Kaito's interruption. "Right." She dialed Ryoma's number and turned to face the reporter. "Get out of my house. My babysitter for the day has a criminal record and he will kill again if he catches you in the same zip code as our baby."

That was all the man needed to hear. He disappeared from their lives forever after that.

The rest of that day was spent at the hospital getting to meet Shikou Saihara, and though they didn't get to spend time with him that day, Kaede promised they'd be doing it a lot more in the future. As if another kid in her life was just what Maki needed…

_fifteen_.

In the month after Shikou was born, Kaede had tried to rope Maki into several different playdates or other excursions, but Maki would always avoid them by insisting that the boys were too young for bonding activities. However, one idea surfaced that, once it reached Kaito's ear, became impossible to escape. "We gotta do it, Maki Roll!"

"No, we really don't," she insisted. "Just because our friends did it doesn't mean we have to."

"But this is a special occasion," Kaito told her, rocking Momoki in his arms. "How often to two sets of best friends have babies at the same time?"

Maki elected to ignore the second part and zero in on the first. "It's not that special. They've done these photoshoots for the other two kids, so that poor photographer we roped into this has already had to put up with them so many times."

"But this time their new one has a friend!"

Maki sighed. What a well thought out, convincing argument. She wanted to remain steadfast, but she knew that the second Kaito had his heart set on this, there was no convincing him otherwise. "You know, for how much she rags on you, you and Kaede are birds of a feather."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kaito asked, tilting his head to the side.

"We can go, I guess."

The next day, Maki, Kaito, and Momoki appeared on the Saiharas' doorstep, the former two dressed to the nines. Kaede greeted them with a coy, knowing smile that only got wider when asked why she wasn't dressed up nice yet. "I hate to tell you that your preparations are all gonna go to waste, but Mahiru will probably make you change."

"What? Why? Please don't tell me that I stuffed myself into this monkey suit for no reason." As he spoke, Kaito tugged at the collar of his shirt.

"She brings her own wardrobe, for the most part," Shuichi explained, one child snoozing peacefully in his arms and two running circles around his feet. "I'm surprised you guys didn't know this. After all, you two were the ones who hired her as one of our baby shower gifts."

The memory brought a smirk to Maki's face. "Right, I almost forgot."

"Don't worry Kaito," Kaede said, putting on a smug look. "No matter what she puts you in, you'll still look like a monkey."

The doorbell rang, startling all of the children present except for Momoki, who happened to be in Maki's arms.

"Come in!" Kaede called. In came Mahiru, red hair pulled back for the day and a camera hanging around her neck. "You know us well enough to just come in, you know," Kaede told her after a hug.

"I know that, but I figured it'd be polite to let you guys know I was about to barge in," Mahiru said. "That is, unless you want me to come in guns blazing and yelling at you to take your clothes off."

"It would certainly be like the first two shoots we had," Shuichi mused. "But we appreciate the concern. Shall we get started?"

Mahiru's eyes lit up. "Yes! Alright, the Saihara Squad will go put on the first set of outfits I put aside for you, and I'll give the Momotas the run down while you're gone." The bigger family shuffled out, and Mahiru turned to the remaining trio, an exasperated smile on her face. "I die a little inside every time I have to call them the Saihara Squad."

"Trust us, we do too," Maki assured her.

"I do have to thank you for turning me to them, though." Mahiru said with a smile. "They've been a joy to work with, and if they keep making kids like this, they'll single-handedly pay my student loan debt!"

Kaito gave a hearty laugh and Maki had a short but terrifying vision of her old orphanage, but every child was replaced by a small, dark-haired Saihara child. "_I_ should charge _you_ for making me think of that," she said under her breath.

Mahiru either didn't hear her or disregarded what she said, because she went right back into business mode. "So when they get back, I do have a selection of outfits for you guys to try on. I, er, assumed it would take longer for you to get your pre-baby body back, so some of it may be just a tad too big, but we can cross that bridge if we get to it." Kaito and Maki shared a knowing look, but before Mahiru could ask about it, the pastel nightmare parade barged back in, forcing the families to rotate.

True to Mahiru's word, most of the clothing she'd brought along was too big for Maki, and the ordeal everyone had to go through to make the first outfit look good was enough for Maki to decide that one was plenty. Her, Kaito and Momoki watched the rest of the photoshoot from the sidelines, filling in the spots of downtime with some casual conversation. However, Maki wasn't getting out of it that easy. Near the end of the day, Kaede insisted on one last picture for Maki, pointing out that the longer they argued about it, the longer Mahiru had to deal with them. That argument convinced Maki to be in the last picture, which was a cute shot of her and Kaede standing back-to-back, each holding her respective baby. Despite the unmistakable look of disdain on Maki's face, it was an adorable shot, and Kaede loved it so much that she set it as her picture on almost all of her social media accounts.

Maki hated all the pictures that were taken that day, but when she realized the meaning behind that one, she was able to forgive it. To Kaede, it was a testament to how the Saiharas and Momotas were just as close as family and would have each other's backs no matter what life threw at them, and a girl who grew up in an orphanage could use all the family she could get.


	4. Chapter 4

_sixteen_.

Time went on. The world still wasn't going to stop to give Maki the time to get warmed up to Momoki, but that ended up being a good thing, because that process was an extremely long one. In fact, thinking too hard about her situation was enough to sour Maki's mood even well into his childhood. The only difference was that, after a certain age, she would have to hide her disdain for the child, because he grew to be smart enough that he would realize she hated him if she wasn't careful.

But just because she didn't like him didn't mean he didn't love her to death. Despite the fact that Maki had left much of the actual raising of the child to Kaito (except in situations where she was extremely necessary), Momoki loved her just as much as his father did. He would shower her in his love and affection, even when the only thing she contributed to his upbringing were obligatory gifts and the middle man for a ghostly prank that he still wouldn't let his father live down even well into his third year of elementary school. Maki wasn't blind to how lucky she was to have two men in her life who would give their lives for her, but one day, Momoki drove that home for her.

That day started when Kaito woke Maki up to have her drive Momoki to school. When she sleepily asked him why, he explained, "I got called in to cover a morning shift at work. So let's switch up who takes 'im and picks him up today, yeah?"

Maki rolled her eyes and brought herself to a sitting position. "Fine."

"Awesome, thanks Maki!" After a cheek kiss, Kaito rushed out of the room, leaving Maki alone to get ready for the day.

When she was dressed, she left the room to find Momoki, fully dressed and absentmindedly playing with one of his models while he ate a bowl of cereal. When he saw her, his eyes widened and he waved with the robot in his hand. "G'morning, mom!"

"You don't waste any time, do you?" Maki asked, sitting at the table across from him. She looked around the room to see his vast collection of robots lying around in every corner. "Momoki, I thought you were a hardcore collector or something. Don't those people leave their robot toys in the box?"

Momoki put the robot in his hand on the table and posed it so it was saluting his mother. "Maybe other collectors do, but models are meant to be made, dang it! And when they're just sitting there, not played with, I feel like I need to fix that."

Maki smirked, remembering the fervor that overtook her when she decided it was time to build that Saturn V rocket that was still collecting dust in her and Kaito's room. "Right," she said. "Well, you could still do to keep them somewhat organized when you're not playing with them."

Momoki sighed, looking around to survey the damage he'd done to his mother's nice kitchen. "I guess you're right. I'll clean it up after school, I promise!"

"I don't believe you," Maki told him flatly. "But let's get going. The sooner you're there, the sooner you can come home and prove me right."

Momoki seemed unphased by her lack of faith in him and jumped to his feet. "Okay! Let's go!"

The car ride to school was largely silent, any of Momoki's attempts at talking met with his mother's cold shoulder. When they arrived, he said a fond farewell and hopped out of the car, dashing into the building with the excitement only a child his age could muster.

Maki was halfway back home when she glanced to the side and saw a discarded lunch box, adorned with the logo of the show all of Momoki's robots were from. "God damn it," she muttered to herself, coming to a stop at a red light. "I'm already halfway home. I should just let him go hungry for the day. Teach him to forget his shit like this..."

She said all that out loud, but the fact that she was currently pulling a very illegal and inconvenient U-turn betrayed what she was really thinking. Moments later, she was parked in front of the school, walking the lunch box into the building with a scowl on her face. After being pointed in the direction of the classroom she needed to be at, she walked the halls slowly, observing all the wall decorations for the first time. Each classroom had something displayed outside that named the children inside, and the wall next to the third grade classroom she wanted was crowded with drawings done by each kid. She was able to pick out Momoki's art style (if it could even be called that) at a glance. The top of the page had a prompt to draw something important to him, so she expected the crudely drawn figures on the paper to be Momoki's robots, but she was slightly taken aback when one person had very large pigtails and one had a stupid hairdo. In between the two was a smaller figure with similarly dumb hair and a large smile on his face.

Maki moved on, realizing that she had already lost more time than necessary on this detour. She pushed into the room and all the chatter ground to a halt. The teacher stopped mid-sentence and the entire class whirled their heads around to see who had intruded on their learning time. "Sorry if this is a bad time," Maki said, her face not showing any signs of actual regret at all. "Momoki forgot his lunch."

She saw Shikou before she saw the boy she actually needed to see, and he gave a small, shy wave in her direction. She merely nodded at him before shifting her gaze to her son. "Come get it already," she said, tired of being the center of attention. "It isn't going to sprout legs and walk to you."

Momoki giggled, but he looked to his teacher for permission. She nodded at him and he leapt from his chair. "Thanks, mom!" He grabbed the lunch box from her and threw his arms around her, hugging her tight. "I thought I was gonna be hungry all day!"

She ruffled his hair, briefly flashing back to the gaunt, thin faces she would have to deal with in her orphanage. "You won't go hungry on my watch," she said, grim determination in her voice.

"Thank you for the visit, Mrs. Momota." The teacher seemed less than thrilled about the interruption but wore a nervous smile nonetheless. "But it's time for Momoki to get back to his seat so we can continue."

Shikou smiled playfully. "Yeah, Momo, stop being so clingy."

Maki apologized for the interruption, pried Momoki off her, and left the building without another word. As she drove back home, she thought about how the teacher seem intimidated by her, and she briefly entertained the thought of torturing the poor woman with more impromptu visits. However, that would mean putting up with all those kids, and she didn't want to make that sacrifice for a cheap potshot. She got home, kicked her shoes off, and shot her husband a text asking if Momoki being that forgetful was a regular occurrence before switching on the TV for some mindless background noise. An hour or so later, he replied that yeah, it had gotten to the point that Momoki had to be reminded to grab his lunch before leaving the car, which Maki chuckled at.

The next text, however, concerned her. A few minutes after Kaito answered her question, he asked one of his own. The text read, "Why do I have a missed call from the school?"

She didn't even have time to fully read the text before her own screen lit up, the name across the screen letting her know that Momoki's school was trying to get a hold of her. "Hello?"

The voice on the other side was completely professional, and judging from tone alone, it would be impossible to know if anything was wrong. "Hello, Mrs. Momota? I'm calling from the school about your son."

Maki sprang to her feet, already prepared to drop everything to leave. "What happened?"

"It would seem your son has gotten into a fight with another boy on the playground." As she spoke, the woman from the school grew more stern, as if trying to impart how serious of an offense it was.

Maki was dumbstruck. That string of words was not one she ever expected to hear. "He...what?"

"He and another boy from his class got into a fight on the playground," the woman explained. "Neither of them are seriously hurt, but Momoki lost a tooth in the scuffle and the boy will probably be going home with a black eye."

"What the fuck," Maki whispered softly, but with feeling.

The woman seemed not to catch that, because she continued as if she hadn't been interrupted. "Neither of them will be going home early today, but Momoki will be earning a Saturday detention and we highly suggest further punishment once he goes home tonight." The line grew quiet, as if the woman was expecting a response, but Maki couldn't find the words. "This is a very serious offense, Mrs. Momota. I trust you understand that."

Maki shook herself back to reality. "S-sorry," she said. "Of course, I understand. Do you happen to know what they fought about?"

"I do not," the woman responded. "Momoki couldn't say because his mouth was full of blood, the other boy was too busy crying, and one of Momoki's close friends refused to comment. Something about being afraid of us calling his parents...for some reason."

"Was it the Saihara kid?" Maki asked.

"Shikou, yes."

"That sounds like him." Maki sat back down with a sigh. "I'll be sure to have a nice, long talk with him about it," she assured the woman. "Thank you for letting me know."

The women exchanged goodbyes and Maki wasted no time in texting Kaito. "I'll pick Momo up today," her message said.

"What happened?" Despite being a full grown father, Kaito still found it necessary to put thinking emojis in his texts.

"He got in trouble. We'll talk about it when you get home."

As the day went on, Maki found herself growing restless, eager to know what had happened. When the time finally came to get him from school, she could hardly even wait until the car door was closed before she was asking questions. "So how was your day?" she started, trying not to sound like she wanted to know.

"You don't gotta beat around the bush, mom," Momoki said, his voice obviously affected from having one less tooth than he had that morning. "You already know I got into a fight, don't you?"

"I might have been told something along those lines," Maki said. "So tell me what happened so we know how hard to punish you."

Momoki flinched back, as if those words physically hurt him. The poor kid had never been given a harsher punishment than a slap on the wrist, and he was clearly scared of his first serious repercussion. "W-well, after lunch we were on the playground, and one of the other boys, he...he said you were scary!"

Maki raised an eyebrow. "Come again?"

Momoki crossed his arms and put on a death glare to rival his mother's. "Yeah! He said you were scary, and that scary mommies weren't pretty. I told him that you may be scary, but you're still the prettiest girl in the whole world! He wouldn't listen to me, so I...I punched him."

As the boy spoke, Maki could feel her face heat up more and more, until she was scared she would develop a fever from it. "And did he punch you back?"

"Yeah. So I tackled him to the ground." The frank way he said it made Maki laugh, and if she weren't driving, she probably would have doubled over about it. Momoki had clearly worked himself up over it again, but hearing his mom laugh so hard made him crack a smile as well. "I did! That's then he hit my tooth out." He dug around in his backpack and produced the tooth in question—sealed tight in a plastic bag—to support his claim. "See? They even let me keep it! My mouth was full of blood for like, an hour, but I'm better now."

Maki sighed, finally coming down from her laughing fit. "I shouldn't be laughing at this," she said, trying to keep her composure. "This is serious, and you could have been kicked out of school for that."

"I know," Momoki whined, his mood instantly dropping. "You're not gonna tell dad, are you? Please don't tell him!"

"Your dad already knows you got in trouble today, so we kind of have to," Maki said. "He just doesn't know how."

"Maybe we can make something up!" It was kind of concerning how quickly he defaulted to lying.

Maki shook her head. Something told her the context would actually make Kaito less mad about it. "We'll talk about this more when we get home."

"Okay..."

The family meeting was called once everyone was home, and Kaito listened closely as Momoki re-told the story exactly the way he did in the car. Maki had to resist laughing all over again, but it wasn't as hard as she anticipated, because Momoki was clearly terrified. "I see," Kaito hummed in thought once everything was explained. He stroked his dumb goatee as he considered the story he'd been told. "Well, little guy, I think it's really cool that you're so willing to fight for your mom's honor like that, because I'm pretty sure I'd do the same thing!"

"Really?" Momoki asked in disbelief.

"Yeah!" Kaito grinned. "However, you did break a rule, and that's not good." He reached out and took the tooth from Momoki. "Did this hurt when it got knocked out?"

Maki raised an eyebrow at the change of subject, but Momoki didn't seem to mind. "Yeah," he answered. "That wasn't even a loose tooth or anything either, so it especially hurt!"

Kaito nodded slowly. "Alright, well that settles it."

Maki and Momoki gave a synchronized _w__hat_.

"I'd say, between the pain of getting your tooth knocked out and the fear of us punishing you was punishment enough, wouldn't you, Maki Roll?" Kaito spoke slowly, as if trying to keep his thoughts straight.

Maki looked down at Momoki, who had caught on to what his father was saying and grinning widely. Her eyes immediately landed on the spot where his tooth used to be, now replaced with a dark hole. Finally, she closed her eyes and sighed. "Fine. He gets off easy this time."

Kaito and Momoki both cheered loudly, the latter jumping in place. "Alright, Momo, just be sure to tell 'em we punished you real good tomorrow, okay?"

"Right!" Momoki nodded and ran off into his room.

Kaito watched his son leave and turned to Maki, a smile on his face. "Betcha weren't expecting to hear that, huh?"

Maki finally gave up on fighting the smile that came to her lips. "I have to admit, it came as a surprise."

"That kid loves you a lot, Maki Roll," Kaito told her, a serious tone coming back to him. "I think it's about time you show him the same kinda affection back, y'know?"

Maki smirked, putting on an evil glare. "You want me to beat up some third graders on his behalf? Odd request, but I think I can take them."

Kaito laughed, turning his attention to the bag in his hand. "Here, once it's time for dinner, I think I want a picture of Momo's first big fight."

That day did give Maki something to think about, but she didn't find it too difficult to dismiss those thoughts in favor of the funniest joke she thought she'd ever made. If anything, the situation told her to use comedy to escape from her moral dilemmas more often, and that was obviously the superior choice.

_seventeen_.

The letter that called for Momoki Momota to leave home came unceremoniously, and the only reason it didn't get disregarded was because Maki noticed the opulent crest adorning the front of the envelope. Her confusion only grew at the sight of her son's name below that as opposed to that of either of the adults of the house. The barely high-school aged Momoki wasn't expecting mail either, so he was just as in the dark as his parents were.

He nearly fainted when the letter happened to be an invitation to attend Hope's Peak Academy as the Ultimate Collector. His father was so excited for him, Maki thought he was actually going to faint, but he held it together long enough to snap a picture of the family with the letter and put together a congratulatory (slightly braggadocious) post on social media. The Momota household (or two-thirds of it) only got more noisy when the Saiharas responded that Momoki's best friend and sidekick got a similar invitation that very day. "I can't believe it!" Momoki cheered. "I'm going to be going to the most presti… pres… one of the best schools in the world and Shikou's gonna be there with me every step of the way!"

"Hopefully the fancy school will teach you how to say prestigious," Maki remarked, earning a playful punch to the shoulder from her husband.

They were happy for him. They really were. However, Maki was mostly looking forward to having the house free of a little mouth to feed for the first time in almost a decade and a half. Kaito knew this, and Momoki tried to tell himself he didn't, but they didn't call her out on it for fear of ruining a perfectly happy time in their lives.

Momoki left without much fanfare, and in direct contrast to Shikou spending the better part of a half hour hugging his family goodbye and refusing to let go, Maki practically pushed him out of the house.

The time without Momoki seemed to fly by. Before she knew it, Maki was staring down the barrel of his graduation, which meant once again tolerating him in her house for who knew how long. When Kaito gave her the exact date (which happened to be a month before his eighteenth birthday) over dinner a week in advance, she rolled her eyes and gave a hollow cheer. The wind seemed to be taken from Kaito's sails, judging by how his eyes narrowed at Maki. "You can't even act a little excited to see our boy graduate, Maki Roll?"

"Not really," Maki said, idly tracing her finger across the table. "I haven't done it for almost eighteen years, so what makes you think I'd start now?" Kaito shook his head and left the table silently. Wait, where was his usual banter? Maki shrugged it off and continued eating, not particularly bothered about her husband's moodiness.

A few minutes later, though, Kaito came back and startled her by dropping a thick notebook on the table with a loud _THUD_. "Here, take a look through this, would ya?"

"What is it?" Maki asked without moving a muscle.

Kaito crossed his arms, determined to make sure Maki opened it herself. "This here's the photo album I put together for Momo. I figured, y'know, we went to the trouble of having professional pictures taken, so why not just go full on sentimental grandpa about it? Now, I want you to look through these pictures and see what they all have in common, okay?"

Maki was unimpressed. "I'm willing to bet the common thread is Momoki, but okay."

Kaito shook his head, clearly growing frustrated with the conversation. "Lemme know when you find it," he said, turning around and storming out.

It was an asinine task, and Maki was sure it would have the opposite effect of whatever he wanted it to do, but she could tell he wasn't going to be satisfied until she'd done it, so she opened the book and pulled it closer to herself. The first picture was baby Momoki, in the hospital, bundled up in Maki's arms with an excited yet tired Kaito next to the bed. She didn't even remember this picture being taken, but there it was. Momoki was sleeping peacefully in her arms, but she looked like she would rather be dead than where she was right then. Seeing that picture transported her back to that moment, holding a baby she didn't want and recovering from a surgery she definitely didn't feel like she needed. Of course she was angry in that picture, who could blame her?

The next page had the photoshoot pictures Kaito mentioned, and in each one, she looked just as angry as the first one. She reached the picture of her and Kaede standing back-to-back with their babies in their arms and paused. She found herself entranced by how much of a _glow_ Kaede had about her, even in a nearly eighteen year old picture. There stood a proud mother of three who was ecstatic to be well on the road of parenthood, but next to her was a brooding, almost hunched over woman who looked like she'd aged ten years just in the time she'd been looking at the picture. What was the big deal, here? The whole photoshoot was kind of a mess, so perhaps that was why she looked fit to kill.

She flipped through the pages until she found a picture of her and Momoki. She was crouched next to him and he was proudly showing off a plastic bag with a tooth in it. Hours before that picture was taken, she had been told that Momoki attacked a classmate to defend her honor, and yet the picture showed an exasperated woman who wished she was anywhere else. Why was she so angry in that picture? Was it because he was in trouble at school for that?

Page after page, picture after picture, the story was the same. A happy Momoki, a proud Kaito, and a constantly annoyed Maki. The farther along she got and the older the pictures showed Momoki, a realization was starting to dawn on her. Surely she was smiling in _one_ of these pictures, right?

The answer was no. And excuses as to why were few and far between.

The final page held an empty space, bordered by doodles of graduation caps and diplomas. Obviously this spot was meant to hold the picture that was set to be taken in a week. After that was a note to Momoki from Kaito, congratulating him on a job well done, an early life well lived.

Momoki's graduation present was going to be a photo album filled with his mom hating his very existence. His young life was gone, the time had slipped by, and Maki hadn't even _tried_ to warm up to him that entire time. All that time was lost and there was no getting it back.

Tears started streaming down Maki's face, surprising her so much she slammed the book closed and pushed it away from her. She'd already ruined her son's life, so the least she could do was stop her tears from ruining Kaito's present. How could she be so selfish all these years?

Momoki was a fine kid. He was more like his dad in personality and looks, but on the rare occasion that he was brought to anger, he was just as silently terrifying as his mother. However, for the most part, he was a caring, selfless child who would not hesitate to put his life on the line for his parents or his sidekick Shikou.

He was a good kid who deserved so much better than the mother he was given. The longer she thought about him, the more she realized she truly did love her son. She felt like that cartoon character whose heart grew three sizes, but it was as if that had happened after the horrible things he'd planned had succeeded, leaving a mess that he felt terrible about, but had no means to make up for it.

Maki ran out of the dining room and threw herself into Kaito's arms, sobbing violently. He didn't ask questions or make any smart remarks, he just held her tightly and stroked her hair, telling her it would be alright.

"What do I do?" Maki finally managed to say after several minutes. "I ruined everything..."

Kaito took a deep breath to think about how to respond. "Well, there's no going back and changing it. What's done is done."

"Momoki must hate me as much as I've hated him," Maki sighed, succumbing to a fresh wave of tears.

Kaito shook his head. "I can promise you he still loves you as much as ever. You should still try to make it up to him though, and the best way to do that would be to go to his graduation as the loving, supportive mom we all know you can be."

Maki nodded, sniffling. "Right. You're right."

With a newfound resolve that she didn't know she could have, Maki went through the next week with an alien emotion in her heart. For the first time she could ever recall, she was excited to see her son again. Before she knew it, the morning of the graduation had rolled around, and she was dressed better than she'd dressed before, ready to watch her son reach this milestone in his life.  
Of course, they weren't the only parents they knew in the same position, so the minivan plastered with corny stickers that they had grown so accustomed to was no surprise to see in the parking lot of Hope's Peak. Kaito pulled up next to it and waved to the family inside, getting four waves in response. "Hey Saihara Squad!" he greeted, stepping out of the car. "Funny seeing you here!"

"It's almost like our boys are three weeks apart, huh?" Kaede replied playfully. "Come here, you two." She grabbed them both in tight hugs while her family stepped out of the van.

The oldest child stretched her limbs as she got out, a grimace on her face. "Mom, when are you gonna get rid of that cramped van? It's not like you need to cart us all around now, we can drive. At least, Kochou and I can."

"I don't have a problem with the space," Kochou added. "My problem is with the embarrassing stickers."

"Of course you don't care about the space, shortstack," Aika teased.

"Hey!"

Kaede ignored the banter and patted the van proudly. "I'd never get rid of this old girl! There are way too many good memories attached."

That was when Shuichi entered the conversation. "Besides, those custom Saihara Squad stickers didn't come cheap."

Kaito laughed and clapped a hand on his sidekick's shoulder. "You guys never change, I like that."

Maki smiled, thinking about how much she herself had changed over the last week. If she'd warmed up to Momoki sooner, would her car be covered with those kinds of stickers? Who knew, but speaking of warming up to people…

"Hey girls," she said, waving at Aika and Kochou and taking in their outfits.

Aika was tall and lean like her father, but her legs had the kind of muscular build that naturally came from being a prodigy ballerina. Her pink dress also betrayed her talent, reminding Maki of that Swan Lake themed birthday from so long ago. She smiled at Maki warmly. "Hey aunt Maki. You look great today."

"You do!" Kaede agreed. "You've got this, like, warm glow around you. Did you do something different with your hair?"

Maki shook her head. "No, I just had a revelation, I guess."

Kochou leaned into Aika and whispered something under her breath, making her sister giggle and blush. Maki put on her trademark glare and snapped, "I heard that, Kochou."

She didn't actually hear it, but Kochou didn't know to call that bluff, jumping in place and squeaking like a mouse caught in a trap. Kochou was the shortest of her siblings, and her chubby proportions from childhood never quite wore off. She was a dancer as well, so she had just as much muscle as fat, but that only made her look rounder, especially when standing next to one of her siblings. Her outfit was purple and seemed almost like it was tailored for someone who was liable to break out into a dance at any moment. "P-please don't be mad, aunt Maki," she said, growing frantic under Maki's harsh glare. It was hard to believe these girls were in their early twenties, and even more so watching one of them cower before her.

The sight was enough to make Maki break her glare and laugh genuinely for the first time in what felt like forever. "I'm not actually mad," she said, turning toward the venue. "Now let's go watch a graduation, shall we?"

"I think we shall, Maki Roll," Kaito said, interlocking his arm with hers and walking her toward the school. The Saiharas looked between each other, astounded that Maki had laughed like that around them. After they collected themselves, they scrambled to follow the couple inside.

The graduation began with a performance from the more musically inclined students. During the song, Maki glanced at her friend to see Kaede, Aika and Kochou all absentmindedly following the piano notes with their hands. Of course she would have taught her kids the piano, Maki thought, watching as they all tapped their legs like they were the ones playing. Every once in a while, Aika and Kochou's fingers would hesitate and take a beat to re-center themselves, but their mom played along on her pantomime piano so well, it was like she was one note ahead of the actual performance. Shikou was surely doing the same thing down in that crowd of well-dressed graduates. Once that was over, the headmaster took the stage, clearing his throat and gathering himself for his speech. Mister Naegi was a bit of a scrawny guy and his unruly hair definitely didn't give the impression of being on such an important head, and that effect wasn't helped by the look of excitement he wore. "Good evening and welcome. As the headmaster of this great school, I've had the honor of watching every manner of talented individual walk across this stage. Thus, I've been to each and every one of these, and trust me, I know exactly how boring they are." He paused for a few awkward chuckles, cleared his throat and moved on.

"Normally I'd end my speech with how proud I am of these students—and trust me, I've had one-on-one time with all of them—but this year is special. I just had to give a longer speech because this is the year my very own daughter is graduating as the ultimate Tactician." He nodded proudly, dabbing a tissue at the corner of his eye during the applause that came.

During the applause, Maki looked to the group of students to see most of their heads turn to one person. One unmistakably stupid head of hair stood up and loudly shouted something she didn't catch, but she found herself smiling at the (albeit distant) sight of her son.

The headmaster calmed the crowd down and spoke again. "So my message to all the graduates is, 'Congratulations. We gave you a hell of an opportunity, so you should make the most of it.' To my daughter, I say, 'I love you, Mirai, I'm so lucky to have you and your mother at my side, and I'm very proud of you.' Boy, am I glad I didn't get those messages mixed." Another pause for laughter; this time it was genuine. "Thank you all for listening, and enjoy the rest of the graduation."

The ceremony moved quickly after that, and not five minutes after the headmaster's speech, names were being read and diplomas handed out. The format of reading a name and listing that student's ultimate talent lead to several strange looks being shared among the group of friends. "I know Hope's Peak has always had strange titles, but some of these are just a bit too much, don't you think?" Kaito said after a couple of particularly strange call-outs.

"Yeah, but who are we to question the most prolific school on the planet?" Shuichi responded, shrugging his shoulders apathetically.

Maki didn't give her input, but she definitely had trouble determining what someone's talent was based on their title alone. Sure, they were all given paper programs that listed each student's achievements and potential out, but just hearing "Ultimate Layout Artist" didn't exactly give her a vivid idea of what that person was good at.

Speaking of the Ultimate Layout Artist, there she was walking across the stage. She was the first person Momoki talked about during his first holiday break spent at home, because she had the distinction of being the other person in the class with the same first name as his. The most important distinction between them was that her last name was Hinata, so she was called a significant amount of time before her counterpart.

That wasn't even getting into the infuriatingly vague title Shikou was given, but Maki's train of thought didn't have much time to dwell on that, because by the time she thought of it, the person on the stage said, "Momota Momoki, the Ultimate Collector."

Kaito shot to his feet and cheered as loud as his lungs would let him, but he was almost startled out of his celebration by the sight of his wife doing the same. Her roaring applause didn't quite reach the same volume as his, but that was certainly the loudest he'd ever seen her yell. Watching Momoki confidently walk across the stage and receive his diploma was the proudest of anyone either parent had ever been, and they were both going to do everything in their power to make sure he knew that.

And the fact that Kaito wasn't going to do it alone was one of the highlights of the day.

"Don't wear out your voices, guys," Kaede said once the Momotas had taken their seats again. "Or else you won't be able to cheer for Shikou."

"I think I can spare some loudness for the little guy," Kaito promised.

Maki, meanwhile, put on a sly grin and said, "Sorry, I'm all yelled out." Her voice was hoarse enough to stop Kaede from forming a comeback, instead stunning her into silence until her son's name was called.

"Saihara Shikou, the Ultimate Vrituoso."

The Saiharas (and Kaito) stood and cheered. Maki watched them cheer and, for once, could relate to what Shuichi and Kaede must have been feeling then. To think she missed out on almost eighteen years of this kind of warmth in her chest saddened her again, but she wasn't going to let the self-hatred get in the way of her new outlook on life. Not today of all days.

The ceremony wrapped up soon after Shikou walked the stage, and before she knew it, Maki was thrown into the sea of people trying to locate their loved ones and leave the building simultaneously. Her attempts to find Momoki were for naught, as she wasn't quite tall enough to look over anyone's heads. This meant that Kaito, the tallest of the bunch, became their navigator.

How big of a mistake that was became evident when he called out Momoki's name and the other Momoki responded, confused as to why a strange man was calling her name. Maki apologized to her and her parents—a man who seemed stern but exhausted and a very sleepy woman—and moved on.

Not long after that, they found Momoki and Shikou together near the exit, their suitcases at their feet ready to go home. Shikou looked terrified to be in the crowd, but when he saw his family, he seemed to visibly relax, putting on a large smile and throwing himself into his mother's arms. "Congratulations, Shikou!" she said, patting his back and bursting into tears for no less than the third time that day.

"Yeah, good job graduating from your nerd school," Kochou said, putting her hands on her hips.

Aika stifled a laugh at her side. "You're just jealous you're the only one who didn't get an invite."

"Yours doesn't count," Kochou snapped. "You can't use an invitation you turned down as leverage."

"How many times have they had that fight, I wonder?" Kaito mused, but he might as well have not said anything, because Maki made eye contact with Momoki and practically tackled him to the ground with the force of her hug.

It wasn't unlike hugging Kaito, which was to be expected considering their somewhat similar builds, and the familiarity helped immensely. "Whoa! H-hey mom," Momoki said, reciprocating the hug as tightly as he could.

Maki stepped back and looked at her son, now nearly an adult and finished with high school. "I am so proud of you, Momo," she sniffled, launching into another hug to try to hide the tears forming at the corners of her eyes.

Momoki was shocked to hear his mother use that nickname for him, and he almost asked if what was happening was a joke before Kaito chipped in and made it a group hug.

The families moved outside to the parking lot to take family pictures and get ready to head home. The Saihara family took ages to get theirs over with; between all the kids to just Shikou with his parents and every combination between, they must have been at it for twenty minutes.

However, Aika stepped away during one shot to do her aunt Maki a favor and snap one, perfect picture. All three Momotas were happy and smiling, Momoki in between them with his arms wrapped around his parents' shoulders. It was the first time Maki could remember genuinely smiling for a camera since her wedding day, and the world seemed just a bit brighter after the flash of Kaito's phone went off to signify the picture had been taken.

As Kaito moved to Aika's side to see how the picture came out, Momoki clapped his hands together, eyes going wide. "Oh, right! Mom, I have something to give you!"

"You...do?" Maki asked, raising an eyebrow.

Momoki smiled and leaned down, rummaging through his suitcase in the middle of the parking lot like some kind of...well, Momota. After a moment, he got back to his feet, hands clasped around a box roughly the size of a sleeve of cookies. "Ta-da!" He opened it up to reveal two rows of flower hair pins, each one completely unique in color and size. "There was this girl in Toumi's year that was the Ultimate Horti...culturist? Anyway, she raised flowers, and she gave me her flower hairpin collection as a gift!" Maki's jaw dropped as she examined each one, picking up a red one and admiring how well put‐together it was. "She gave them to me one at a time as she spent more time with our friend group, so it was like I was collecting them from her!"

Maki was still awestruck. "And you got them all for me?"

Momoki nodded happily. "Of course! I liked wearing 'em and all, but I thought they'd be a perfect gift to give to my mom."

Maki put the red one in her hair and assumed the straightest, most deadpan face she could manage in the moment. "I love them," she said flatly.

Momoki laughed at the silly sight of his downright terrifying mother doing something so silly, and just barely managed to notice the flash going off again right before Maki grabbed him in another hug.

After the celebratory dinner (which Maki covered as her gift to Momoki), the family splintered off from the Saiharas and finally settled down for the night. After hours of catching up and sharing stories, Momoki bid his parents goodnight, excited to sleep in his own bed again, and left them to their own devices. "So when are you giving that scrapbook to Momo?" Maki asked once they were in the privacy of their own room.

Kaito shook off his nice jacket and started to change into his lounge clothes (which were shockingly similar to his every day outfit). "I was plannin' on giving it to him for his birthday. Y'know, since he's gonna be eighteen and that's a fitting gift for that kinda thing."

Maki wasn't convinced. "You're just saying that because it would have to be late for a graduation present."

Kaito's expression soured. "Hey, getting these pictures printed all nice doesn't happen in a day!"

"Either way, can I write a note in it?" Maki asked, almost nervous to breach the subject.

"You really wanna?" Kaito raised an eyebrow as he spoke. "There's enough room for one from ya, I just didn't think you'd..."

"I'll write him a message that will put yours to shame," Maki snapped, determination evident on her face. "And I'll try to make up for all those years of hating his guts." Despite her words, she was getting into bed, making herself comfortable under the sheets. Obviously, what she was talking about was going to have to wait until later.

Kaito smiled softly. Maki's taunts weren't fooling him. "You still feel really bad about that, huh?" Maki didn't respond, puffing her cheeks out in a pout. He laughed and got into bed before wrapping an arm around her. "Don't you worry too much about it, Maki Roll. Like I said, he obviously doesn't hold any of it against you."

Maki sighed, the weight of the day finally getting to her. Her chest felt heavy and her eyes were damp. "I know, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't change it if I could."

"If you could go back and do it again?" Kaito supplied, earning a nod in response. "Yeah, well, wouldn't that be nice?"

The couple lay in bed, basking in the comfortable silence for a few moments before he spoke again. "I mean, there is one way to do it again, if you want."

"What do you mean…?"

"We could always have another one."

Maki's eyes clouded over with genuine murderous intent for the first time in years. "Do you want to die?"

Kaito threw his head back and laughed himself into a coughing fit, tears forming in his eyes.

"You laugh, but when you don't wake up in the morning, I'll tell Momo you lost your head in a freak accident."

* * *

**And that's the end! Fun fact, the first chapter was posted on Momoki's birthday and this last one is being posted on Shikou's birthday. I hope that gives a little bit more context to just how close in age these two were. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, and I'd like to thank my lovely girlfriend for helping me plot by answering my dumb questions about her lovingly crafted fankid AU, editing these chapters, and letting me take the reigns on Momo's kooky story. **


End file.
